< 

University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


Evolution  Series,  No.  29  May  i,  1892 


MAN  AND  THE   STATE 

STUDIES  IN  APPLIED   SOCIOLOGY 

LECTURES   AND    DISCUSSIONS    BEFORE   THE 
BROOKLYN    ETHICAL  ASSOCIATION 


"Admirably  adapted  to  poprdarize  evolution  views." — HERBERT  SPENCER 

Fortnightly  Ten  Cents 

Two  Dollars  and  Forty  Cents  per  'annum 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM 
IN  THE  SOUTH 


BY 

PROF.  JOSEPH  LE  CONTE,  LL.  D., 

President  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science; 
author  of  4<  Evolution  as  related  to  Religious  Thought,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK 
D.     APPLETON     AND     COMPANY 

I,    3,    AND    5    BOND    STREET 
1892 

Copyright,  1892,  by  THE  BROOKLYN  ETHICAL  ASSOCIATION 
Entered  as  second-class  matter  at  the  New  York,  N.  Y.,  Post  Office,  April  28,  1891 


D.  APPLETON  &   CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

VOLUTION    IN    SCIENCE,     PHILOSOPHY, 

AND  ART,  A  Series  of  Seventeen  Lectures  and  Discussions 
before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Association.  With  3  Portraits. 
466  pages.  I2mo.  Cloth,  $2.00.  Separate  Lectures,  in  pam 
phlet  form,  10  cents  each. 

These  popular  essays,  by  some  of  the  ablest  exponents  of  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  in  this  country,  will  be  read  with  pleasure  and  profit  by  all  lovers 
of  good  literature  and  suggestive  thought.  The  principle  of  evolution,  being 
universal,  admits  of  a  great  diversity  of  applications  and  illustrations  ;  some 
of  those  appearing  in  the  present  volume  are  distinctively  fresh  and  new. 

CONTENTS. 

1.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace By  EDWARD  D.  COPE,  Ph.  D. 

2.  Ernst  Haeckel By  THADDEUS  B.  WAKEMAN. 

3.  The  Scientific  Method By  FRANCIS  E.  ABBOT,  Ph.D. 

4.  Herbert  Spencer's  Synthetic  PhilosopJiy.  By  BENJ.  F.  UNDERWOOD. 

5.  Evolution  of  Chemistry By  ROBERT  G.  ECCLES,  M.  D. 

6.  Evolution  of  Electric  and  Magnetic  Physics. 

By  ARTHUR  E.  KENNELLY. 

7.  Evolution  of  Botany By  FRED  J.  WuLLiNG,Ph.  G. 

8.  Zoology  as  related  to  Evolution     ...     By  Rev.  JOHN  C.  KIMBALL. 

9.  Form  and  Color  in  Nattire    ....     By  WILLIAM  POTTS. 

10.  Optics  as  related  to   Evolution     .     .     .  By  L.  A.  W.  ALLEMAN,  M.  D. 

11.  Evolution  of  Art By  JOHN  A.  TAYLOR. 

12.  Evolution  of  Architecture By  Rev.  JOHN  W.  CHADWICK. 

13.  Evolution  of  Sculpture By  Prof.  THOMAS  DAVIDSON. 

14.  Evolution  of  Painting By  FORREST  P.  RUNDELL. 

15.  Evolution  of  Music By  Z.  SIDNEY  SAMPSON. 

16.  Life  as  a  Fine  Art By  LEWIS  G.  JANES,  M.  D. 

17.  The  Doctrine  of  Evolution  :  its  Scope  and  Influence. 

By  Prof.  JOHN  FISKE. 

"A  valuable  series."—  Chicago  Evening  Journal 

..  "  Th.e  addresses  include  some  of  the  most  important  presentations  and  epitomes  pub 
lished  in  America.  They  are  all  upon  important  subjects,  are  prepared  with  great  care, 
and  are  delivered  for  the  most  part  by  highly  eminent  authorities  "—  Public  Opinion. 

"  As  a  popular  exposition  of  the  latest  phases  of  evolution  this  series  is  thorough  and 
authoritative.  "—Cincinnati  Times-Star. 


New  York  :  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,   i,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street. 


i  IE  •  (i  A 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM 
IN  THE  SOUTH 


BY 


JOSEPH  LE  COXTE,  LL.  D. 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  SCIENCE 
AUTHOR  OF  EVOLUTION  AS  RELATED  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT,  ETC. 


COLLATERAL  READINGS  SUGGESTED: 

Williams's  History  of  the  Colored  Race  in  America  ;  Brackett's  The 
Negro  in  Maryland,  and  Notes  on  the  Progress  of  the  Colored  People ; 
Fortune's  Black  and  White ;  Cable's  The  Negro  Question,  and  The 
Silent  South ;  Mayo's  Third  Estate  at  the  South ;  Grady's  In  Plain 
Black  and  White,  in  Century,  April,  1888 ;  Bruce's  The  Plantation 
Negro  as  a  Freeman ;  Blair's  The  Prosperity  of  the  South  Dependent 
on  the  Elevation  of  the  Negro ;  Godkin's  The  Republican  Party  and 
the  Negro,  in  Forum,  May,  1889 ;  Stetson's  Problem  of  Negro  Educa 
tion  ;  Census  Statistics  bearing  on  the  Increase  and  Illiteracy  of  the 
Colored  Eace ;  Statistics  relating  to  Negro  Labor  in  Southern  Manu 
factures,  in  Chattanooga  Tradesman,  1891. 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

BY  JOSEPH  LE  CONTE,  LL.  D. 
PEKSOHAL  KELATIOK  TO  THE  PBOBLEM. 

OK  a  subject  which  has  been  discussed  with  so  much  pas 
sion  and  from  such  opposite  points  of  view,  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  one  who  undertakes  to  enlighten  others 
should  first  vindicate  his  own  right  to  be  heard  by  showing 
his  opportunities  for  knowing  the  fapts  at  first  hand,  and 
also  his  ability  to  form  an  unbiased  judgment.  This  is  my 
excuse  for  bringing  forward  some  points  in  my  own  per 
sonal  history  which  might  otherwise  seem  out  of  place. 

I  was  born  in  1823,  on  a  large  plantation  near  the  coast 
of  Georgia.  Until  approaching  manhood  I  lived  surrounded 
by  at  least  two  hundred  blacks.  In  early  life,  therefore,  I 
knew  no  other  relation  between  whites  and  blacks  than  that 
of  master  and  slave.  My  father  managed  his  plantation 
himself,  and  exercised  authority  with  firmness  and  kind 
ness.  The  property,  which  had  been  inherited  through  sev 
eral  generations,  grew  by  natural  increase  alone,  none  of 
the  slaves,  during  my  recollection,  having  been  either  bought 
or  sold.  Their  moral  and  religious  instruction,  moreover, 
were  carefully  looked  after.  I  have  never  known  a  laboring 
class  more  orderly,  contented,  and  happy.  I  do  not  mean, 
however,  to  deny  the  great  evils  inherent  in  slavery,  but  of 
these  I  became  aware  only  by  wider  experience  at  a  later 
period. 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  years  spent  in  completing 
my  medical  and  scientific  education,  I  continued  to  live  at 
the  South  until  1869,  when  I  removed  to  California.  I 
therefore  saw  and  suffered  the  chaos  of  emancipation  and 
reconstruction.  Since  removing  to  California  I  have  sev 
eral  times  returned  and  spent  several  months,  each  time,  at 
the  South.  I  have  watched  with  interest  the  effect  of 
emancipation  on  the  Negro,  and  compared  the  results  of 
slave  labor  and  free  labor. 

So  much  for  opportunities  for  knowing  the  facts.  But 
such  opportunities  often  prejudice  the  mind  and  incapaci 
tate  it  for  unbiased  judgment.  It  is  necessary,  therefore, 


350  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

to  show  that,  in  some  degree  at  least,  I  have  freed  myself 
from  such  prejudices. 

From  1844,  when  I  came  in  possession  by  inheritance  of 
a  portion  of  the  property  described  above,  until  1865,  when 
the  slaves  were  emancipated,  at  any  time  it  would  have 
been  very  greatly  to  my  advantage  to  have  sold  out  and 
changed  the  form  of  investment.  I  refused  to  do  so  only 
because  I  felt  personally  responsible  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Negroes.  At  any  time  during  the  same  interval  it  would 
have  been  very  greatly  to  my  advantage  to  have  moved  the 
property  westward.  I  refused  this  also  only  because  the 
Negroes  were  attached  to  the  old  place,  and  some  family 
ties  would  have  to  be  broken.  Nor  was  my  own  case  unique. 
Such  sacrifice  of  self-interest  was  common  in  the  South.  It 
is  evident,  therefore,  that  in  proportion  to  the  conscientious 
ness  of  the  owner,  is  this  form  of  property  a  dead  weight  to 
enterprise.  It  is  not  property  in  the  absolute  sense,  nor  was 
it  regarded  as  such.  The  proverbial  lack  of  enterprise  of 
the  Old  South  was  partly  the  result  of  the  large  amount  of 
property  in  this  form,  and  her  conscientiousness  in  the 
treatment  of  it.  It  was  to  her  credit  that  she  was  not  more 
enterprising. 

The  catastrophe  of  the  war  and  the  resulting  emancipa 
tion  of  course  swept  clean  away  everything  I  owned  as  prop 
erty.  The  land  remained — true,  and  still  remains;  but, 
partly  on  account  of  its  situation  and  partly  for  other 
causes  to  be  explained  hereafter,  it  has  never  made  me  a 
cent  from  that  day  to  this.  Yet  this  total  loss  did  not 
cause  me  any  distress.  On  the  contrary,  I  felt  an  inex 
pressible  sense  of  relief  and  almost  joy.  I  mention  these 
facts  to  show  that  I  had  not  even  then  any  strong  prejudice 
in  favor  of  slavery,  nor  was  I  unprepared  to  welcome  eman 
cipation  if  it  had  come  in  the  right  way. 

But  further.  Perhaps  no  one  ever  wholly  frees  himself 
from  the  effects  of  early  influences  and  prejudices ;  but  this 
much  I  can  say  with  confidence :  From  earliest  manhood, 
partly  by  reason  of  inherited  character  and  partly  by  con 
scious  individual  effort,  I  have  set  before  myself  as  the  chief 
end  of  culture  the  purging  of  the  mind  of  every  influence 
that  might  cloud  the  judgment,  that  might  dim  the  clear 
ness  of  intellectual  vision — not  only  on  this,  but  on  all  other 
subjects.  With  this  end  in  view,  while  living  in  New  York 
(1843-'45),  completing  my  medical  education,  and  in  Cam 
bridge,  Mass.  (1850  and  1851),  completing  my  scientific 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  351 

education,  I  lost  no  opportunity  of  discussing  earnestly  but 
dispassionately  the  subject  of  slavery  with  some  of  the  fore 
most  thinkers  of  America.  It  is  true  our  subject  now  is 
not  slavery ;  but  the  close  connection  of  this  question  with 
the  race  problem  is  sufficiently  evident. 

The  audience  will  pardon  me  the  recital  of  these  personal 
details.  It  seemed  to  me  necessary  to  vindicate  my  right 
to  speak  at  all  on  this  subject. 

SCIENTIFIC  METHOD  NECESSARY. 

Next  in  importance  to  an  unbiased  mind  is  a  scientific 
method  of  treatment.  There  was  a  time  when  Science  con 
cerned  herself  only  with  material  Nature.  Questions  re 
lating  to  man  in  his  higher  activities,  and  therefore  all 
questions  of  social  organization,  politics,  ethics,  etc.,  were 
regarded  as  hopelessly  beyond  her  domain.  The  phenomena 
involved  in  these  questions  belonged,  it  was  said,  to  a  higher 
order,  and  were  far  too  complex  to  be  reduced  to  law  by  her 
methods.  But  meanwhile  Science,  laying  first  the  founda 
tions  of  rational  knowledge  in  the  simplest  departments, 
has  risen  steadily  higher  and  higher,  reducing  from  chaos 
to  order  more  and  more  complex  subjects,  until  now  at  last 
she  invades  the  very  highest.  Thus  she  passed  from  mathe 
matics  to  mechanics,  then  to  astronomy,  then  to  physics, 
then  to  chemistry,  reducing  all  to  law ;  then,  only  in  the 
present  century,  to  biology ;  then,  only  recently,  to  psychol 
ogy,  and  finally,  even  now,  to  sociology — the  science  of  so 
cial  organization  and  social  progress,  the  highest  of  all. 
Again,  the  recent  introduction  of  the  idea  of  evolution  by 
Darwin,  and  its  extension  by  Spencer  to  every  department 
of  Nature,  has  revolutionized  the  philosophy  and  methods  of 
every  department  of  thought,  especially  that  of  sociology. 
It  is  almost  needless  to  say,  therefore,  that  our  subject  will 
be  treated  as  much  as  possible  by  the  scientific  method,  and 
especially  in  the  light  of  the  theory  of  evolution.  The  time 
has  now  come  when  it  would  seem  that  the  further  advance 
of  civilization,  and  even  the  conservation  of  that  which  we 
have  already  achieved,  is  strictly  conditioned  on  the  use  of 
more  rational — i.  e.,  of  scientific — methods.  This  point  is  so 
fundamentally  important  that  I  stop  for  a  moment  to  ex 
plain  and  enforce. 

Art  is  the  material  embodiment  of  certain  underlying 
rational  principles.  Science  is  the  formal  statement  and 


352  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

discussion  of  these  same  principles.  Thus  art  may  be  re 
garded  as  the  embodiment  or  application  of  science.  Many 
therefore  think  that  science  is  the  mother  of  art,  and  there 
fore  must  precede  art.  But  not  so.  Science  is  rather  the 
offspring  of  art.  In  nearly  all  cases  art  precedes  science 
and  is  its  condition.  Levers  and  pulleys  and  inclined  planes 
were  used  before  the  mechanical  principles  involved  were 
understood.  The  arts  of  pottery,  of  agriculture,  and  of 
healing  were  practiced  long  before  the  corresponding  sci 
ences  existed.  Art,  then,  leads  to  science,  not  science  to 
art ;  but  when  Science  is  sufficiently  advanced  she  turns 
again  and  perfects  art.  But  there  is  a  transition  stage,  when 
an  imperfect  but  arrogant  science  may  interfere  with  the 
truer  results  of  empiricism  and  do  infinite  harm.  This  is 
especially  true  in  the  more  complex  departments.  In  this 
stage  Science  ought  to  be  strictly  subordinate  to  a  wise  em 
piricism.  She  must  whisper  suggestions  rather  than  utter 
commands.  Such  is  the  relation  of  science  to  art  in  agri 
culture  and  medicine  to-day.  To  illustrate  :  Science  is  the 
daughter  of  art — heavenly  daughter  of  an  earthly  mother — 
but  when  she  is  sufficiently  grown  she  turns  again  like  a 
good  daughter  and  helps  her  mother,  and  even  takes  control 
of  the  work.  But  let  her  beware  lest,  in  her  childish  vanity, 
her  unskillful  and  meddlesome  hands  do  harm  instead  of 
good. 

Thus,  then,  there  are  two  kinds  of  art — empirical  art  and 
scientific  or  rational  art.  Empirical  art  precedes  science 
and  is  its  condition ;  rational  art  comes  after  science  and  is 
its  embodiment.  Empirical  art  is  the  outcome  of  the  use 
of  the  intuitive  reason,  which  works  without  understanding 
itself,  and  which  in  its  highest  forms  we  call  genius.  Sci 
entific  art  is  the  outcome  of  the  use  of  the  formal  reason 
which  analyzes  and  understands  the  principles  on  which  it 
works.  Empirical  art  may  indeed  attain  great  perfection, 
but  sooner  or  later  it  reaches  its  limit  and  either  petrifies  or 
decays.  Scientific  art,  because  it  understands  itself,  is  of 
necessity  indefinitely  progressive.  All  art,  by  evolution, 
passes  through  these  two  stages,  but  more  slowly  in  propor 
tion  as  the  principles  involved  are  more  complex.  Many 
arts  are  still  in  the  empirical  stage. 

Now  the  highest,  the  most  complex  and  difficult  of  all 
arts  is  the  art  of  government — of  politics,  of  social  organiza 
tion.  '  ^This  art,  of  course,  preceded  the  science  of  sociology, 
for  it  is  the  necessary  condition  not  only  of  the  science  of 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  353 

sociology  but  of  civilization  itself.  This  art  has  thus  far 
perfected  itself  wholly  by  empirical  methods.  But  there  is 
one  peculiarity  about  this  art  which  makes  advance  by  em 
pirical  methods  irregular  and  doubtful.  In  all  other  arts 
the  material  is  foreign  to  the  artist ;  in  this,  artist  and  mate 
rial  are  identified.  Society  makes  itself.  In  this  regard  it 
is  a  product  of  evolution,  not  a  manufactured  article.  But 
again,  this  evolution  differs  from  all  other  kinds  in  this : 
all  other  evolution  is  by  necessary  law  without  the  co-opera 
tion  of  the  thing  evolving ;  social  evolution  is  mainly  deter 
mined  by  the  co-operating  will  of  society  itself.  Thus  it  is 
both  a  product  of  art  and  of  evolution.  If  it  were  the  result 
of  pure  evolution  by  necessary  law,  it  would  be  quiet  and 
peaceful ;  if  it  were  the  result  of  pure  art  exercised  on  pas 
sive,  plastic,  foreign  material,  it  would  equally  be  peaceful. 
But  the  mingling  of  these  two  elements  in  varying  propor 
tion  produces  eternal  conflict.  In  early  stages  the  conflict 
is  between  classes  or  factions,  and  is  violent  and  revolution 
ary  ;  in  later  stages  it  is  between  parties  and  far  less  violent. 
But  in  all  cases  it  is  more  or  less  blind,  unreasoning,  pas 
sionate  conflict.  But  social  evolution  and  the  art  of  govern 
ment  have  now  reached  a  point  beyond  which  they  can  not  go 
by  the  use  of  empirical  methods  alone.  There  really  seems, 
in  this  country  at  least,  to  be  serious  danger  of  retrogression 
in  politics  unless  scientific  methods  are  introduced — unless 
we  understand  the  principles  of  sociology  and  try  to  apply 
them  to  the  art  of  government.  On  the  other  hand,  how 
ever,  it  is  evident,  from  what  has  already  been  said,  that  the 
application  must  be  made  with  the  greatest  caution  and 
modesty,  and  in  strict  subordination  to  a  wise  empiricism. 
Science  must  be  introduced  into  politics  only  as  suggesting, 
counseling,  modifying,  not  yet  as  directing  and  controlling. 
Hitherto  social  art  has  advanced  in  a  blind,  blundering, 
staggering  way,  feeling  its  way  in  the  dark,  retrieving  its 
errors,  recovering  its  falls.  But  now,  under  the  light  of 
science,  even  though  it  be  yet  dim,  it  must  advance  more 
steadily,  seeing  as  well  as  feeling  its  way.  The  Ethical 
Association  has  invited  discussion  of  political  and  social 
questions  from  a  scientific  and  especially  an  evolution  point 
of  view.  I  regard  this  as  a  most  hopeful  sign  of  the  times 
— as  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  politics.  It  is  from  this 
point  of  view  that  I  desire  to  discuss  the  race  problem  in 
the  South.  I  can  not  hope,  of  course,  to  solve  so  difficult  a 
problem.  All  I  can  do  is  to  lay  down  some  scientific  prin- 


354  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ciples  on  which  a  solution  must  be  based,  and  in  all  modesty 
to  suggest  some  practical  methods  of  application  of  these 
principles. 

OUR  BEQUEST  OF  SLAVERY. 

No  subject  can  be  scientifically  understood  until  studied 
in  the  light  of  its  history.  This  is  the  historic  method — the 
evolution  method,  so  much  used  in  modern  research.  It  is 
necessary,  therefore,  first  of  all  to  give  a  brief  outline  of  the 
history  of  this  problem. 

There  was  a  time,  and  that  not  more  than  a  century  ago, 
when  slavery  was  universally  regarded  as  the  normal,  and 
indeed  the  necessary,  result  of  the  close  contact  of  civilized 
with  savage  races.  This  view  may  be  regarded  as  the  nat 
ural  one,  as  the  survival  of  the  law  of  force  and  the  right  of 
the  strongest,  inherited  by  man  from  the  animal  kingdom. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  in  early  stages  of  ethical  evolution 
any  other  relation  was  possible  or  even  desirable ;  since  the 
only  alternative  would  have  been  extinction  of  the  weaker 
race.  The  relation  of  master  and  slave,  then,  is  a  natural 
one  under  the  conditions  given  above.  Now,  let  it  be  re 
membered  that  whatever  is  natural  can  not  be  wholly  wrong ; 
that  the  function  of  reason  is  not  to  despise  or  destroy  or 
reverse  Nature  but  to  transform  it  into  higher  modes.  But 
no  more  of  this  now  ;  we  will  recur  to  it  later.  In  any  case, 
it  will  be  admitted  that  the  present  century  was  not  respon 
sible  for  the  existence  of  slavery  at  the  South  previous  to 
the  late  war.  It  was  a  bequest  from  the  previous  century. 
Again,  we  must  sharply  distinguish  between  the  introduc 
tion  of  slavery  and  its  continuance  after  it  was  introduced. 
All  will  admit  the  iniquity,  the  incredible  horror  of  the 
slave  trade,  but  the  possession  and  use  of  inherited  slaves  is 
consistent  with,  and  may  be  even  conducive  to,  the  highest 
morality.  We,  therefore,  say  nothing  more  concerning  the 
introduction  of  slavery  into  the  United  States.  Americans 
were  no  more  responsible  than  other  civilized  peoples.  The 
South  especially  was,  if  possible,  less  responsible  than  others, 
for  the  slaves  were  brought  not  in  her  ships,  but  in  those  of 
other  countries  or  other  parts  of  our  own  country.  Before 
the  war,  and  the  resulting  emancipation,  the  question  with 
the  South  was  not  as  to  the  right  or  wrong  of  the  introduc 
tion  of  slavery.  That  was  a  dead  issue  of  a  dead  genera 
tion.  "  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead."  The  Negroes  were 
already  there ;  what  relation  must  they  sustain  to  the  whites  ? 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  355 

So,  also,  since  the  war,  and  consequent  emancipation,  the 
question  now  is  not  whether  emancipation  was  right  or 
wrong,  nor,  if  right,  whether  it  came  in  the  best  way.  That 
also  is  a  dead  issue.  The  question  now  is,  Being  emanci 
pated,  what  is  best  to  be  done  with  the  Negro  ?  I  have  called 
these  questions  dead,  but  they  are  not  dead  in  the  sense  of 
being  without  living  progeny.  The  living,  in  this  as  in  all 
cases,  has  been  evolved  out  of  the  dead,  and  must  be  studied 
in  connection  with  the  dead.  This  is  the  historic  or  evolu 
tion  method  spoken  of  above. 

It  is  necessary,  also,  to  trace  briefly  the  history  of  the 
change  of  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 

Immediately  after  the  War  of  the  Revolution  all  the 
States,  unless  we  except  Massachusetts,  tolerated  slavery.  If 
slaves  were  more  numerous  in  the  South,  it  was  only  be 
cause  the  climate  was  more  congenial  and  their  labor  more 
profitable  there.  For  the  same  reasons  there  was  a  contin 
ual  transfer  of  slaves  from  the  North  toward  the  South ;  so 
that  the  disparity  became  greater  with  time.  As  the  blacks 
became  fewer  in  number,  and  their  labor  less  profitable, 
emancipation  laws  were  enacted  in  the  Northern  States  suc 
cessively.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  same  result  would  have  fol 
lowed,  at  least  so  soon,  if  slaves  had  been  more  numerous 
and  more  profitable.  Thus,  the  difference  between  the  two 
sections  in  regard  to  the  presence  or  absence  of  slavery  was 
due  wholly  to  physical  causes,  and  not  to  any  difference  in 
the  moral  character  of  the  people. 

Now,  the  same  was  true  in  regard  to  the  difference  of 
sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery  which  gradually  devel 
oped  in  later  times.  It  was  purely  the  result  of  circuifl- 
stances.  Immediately  after  the  War  of  Independence  there 
was  no  difference  of  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in 
different  sections  of  the  country.  In  fact,  the  sense  of  the 
evils  of  slavery,  and  the  hope  of  abolishing  it,  seem  at  that 
time  to  have  been  stronger  in  Virginia  and  South  Carolina, 
and  other  Southern  States,  than  in  the  North.*  But  here, 
again,  commencing  from  a  common  ground,  there  was  a 
gradually  increasing  divergence.  The  same  was  true  of 
many  other  questions  closely  connected  with  one  another, 

*  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison  expressed  hopes  of  the  abrogation  of 
slavery. 

Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  were  taking  steps  looking  toward  gradual 
emancipation  when  checked  by  the  abolition  agitation. 

In  the  first  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Jefferson  introduced  a 
clause  reprobating  the  slave  trade.  This  was  withdrawn  on  account  of  objections 
from  some  of  the  colonies.— Lunt,  Causes  of  the  War  of  '61,  pp.  10-30. 


356  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

and  all  undoubtedly  contributing  to  the  catastrophe  of  the 
war  of  '61.  For  example  :  Starting  from  a  common  ground, 
there  was  an  increasing  divergence  of  views  on  the  subject 
of  the  tariff,  the  natural  result  of  diversity  of  industries. 
Similarly  there  was  an  increasing  divergence  of  views  in 
regard  to  the  relative  claims  of  national  and  State  sover 
eignty,  the  natural  result  of  the  increasing  population  of 
the  Northern  States,  and  the  desire  to  use  the  national 
power  in  their  own  behalf.  Similarly,  an  increasing  diver 
gence  of  views  as  to  the  strict  or  literal  construction  of  the 
National  Constitution,  the  South  being  ever  on  the  defen 
sive,  and  therefore  strict  constructionists.  The  same  was 
true,  and  even  more  true,  of  the  question  of  slavery.  At 
first  slavery  was  tolerated  everywhere.  Then,  wherever  the 
question  could  be  viewed  abstractly  and  disinterestedly,  slav 
ery  was  regarded  as  a  social  evil  and  a  social  danger,  but  no 
longer  avoidable.  We  must  make  the  best  of  it.  Then  the 
sentiment  of  the  world  against  it  became  ever  stronger,  and 
it  was  regarded  as  not  only  a  social  but  a  moral  evil — what 
at  all  hazards  ought  to  be  removed.  Then  it  became  a  mor 
tal  sin,  then  a  crime,  then  the  sum  of  all  crimes  !  Then,  of 
course,  there  commenced  a  holy  crusade  against  it. 

In  the  mean  time  a  contrary  movement  of  sentiment 
was  going  on  at  the  South.  As  slave  labor  became  more 
and  more  profitable,  chiefly  by  the  increasing  culture  of 
cotton  and  rice,  which,  more  than  any  other  products,  re 
quire  the  control  of  labor ;  as  the  number  of  slaves  became 
greater  and  greater,  partly  by  congeniality  of  climate, 
partly  by  migration  from  the  North,  but  chiefly  by  the 
better  care  of  the  slaves  and  their  increased  reproduction — 
the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  became  more  and  more  diffi 
cult,  partly  on  account  of  the  enormous  amount  of  property 
in  this  form,  but  especially  on  account  of  the  extremely 
grave  social  question  involved.  Now,  as  emancipation 
seemed  more  and  more  impossible,  slavery  more  and  more 
fixed,  the  South,  as  was  natural,  set  herself  to  finding  some 
rational  grounds  for  the  defense  of  slavery,  and  many  even 
persuaded  themselves  that,  instead  of  a  curse,  it  was  a  bless 
ing,  and  even  the  sum  of  all  blessings. 

But,  in  spite  of  these  attempts  to  defend  and  even  to 
apotheosize  slavery,  in  the  minds  of  thinking  men  there 
was  an  uneasy  and  even  painful  sense  of  isolation  from  the 
rest  of  the  civilized  world  and  a  consequent  stagnation  of 
the  current  of  progress.  It  was  easily  perceived  that  in 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  357 

many  ways  slavery  was  a  blight  on  the  prosperity  of  the 
South.  Thirty  years  before  the  war  the  South  was  fully 
abreast  of  the  foremost  of  the  Northern  States  in  enterprise, 
both  commercial  and  manufacturing,  in  literature  and  in 
art,  and,  in  fact,  in  all  that  constitutes  a  vigorous  progressive 
civilization.  But  these  thirty  years  were  years  of  complete 
revolution  in  the  world's  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
They  were  also  years  of  prodigious  advance  everywhere  ex 
cept  in  the  South.  She  stood  still  while  the  rest  of  the 
world  rushed  on.  That  the  cause  of  this  was  slavery  there 
could  be  no  doubt.  No  people  can  with  impunity  cut 
itself  off  from  sympathy  with  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world. 
It  must  be  left  behind  in  the  race.  Civilization  is  no  longer 
national,  nor  even  racial.  It  must  be  human. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things  in  1861.  Such  is  a 
brief  history  of  the  growth  of  the  "  irrepressible  conflict " 
between  the  North  and  the  South.  I  will  not  stop  to  dis 
cuss  the  causes  of  the  war.  Others  can  do  this  better  than 
I ;  and,  besides,  that  is  not  the  subject  now  in  hand.  Cer 
tain  it  is,  however,  that  it  was  the  natural  result  of  increas 
ing  divergence  of  interests  and  sentiment  on  many  subjects 
already  mentioned,  until  finally  parties  became  essentially 
sectional.  Undoubtedly,  however,  by  far  the  most  funda 
mental  of  these,  and  perhaps  the  determining  cause  of 
all  the  other  divergences,  was  the  question  of  slavery.  But 
still  more  fundamental  than  this — than  all  these — in  fact, 
the  underlying  cause  of  all  revolutions — is  the  irrational, 
unscientific,  empirical  methods  of  politics,  already  described. 
If  revolutions  are  to  be  prevented  in  future,  it  must  be 
by  the  use  of  more  rational  methods,  by  understanding  the 
laws  of  sociology,  and  the  wise  application  of  these  laws  in 
politics. 

OF  SLAVES  AS  PBOPEKTY. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  overwhelming  loss  of  prop 
erty  suffered  by  the  South  as  the  result  of  the  war  and  con 
sequent  emancipation.  This  leads  me  to  say  something  on 
the  economic  question  of  slaves  as  property.  Let  it  be 
understood,  however,  that  what  I  say  on  this  subject  is  the 
result  of  my  own  thoughts  only,  and  carries  no  authority 
with  it  except  its  reasonableness.  I  do  not  profess  to  be  a 
political  economist.  It  may  be  that  the  views  I  am  about  to 
express  are  those  of  political  economists  generally,  but  I  am 
sure  they  are  not  usually  held  by  intelligent  people. 


358  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

When  the  war  was  ended  and  emancipation  accepted, 
everybody  regarded  the  situation  at  the  South  as  that  of  so 
many  thousand  million  dollars'  worth  of  property  complete 
ly  annihilated,  gone  out  of  existence  like  that  which  takes 
place  in  the  burning  of  a  house.  Now  this,  I  am  convinced, 
is  not  true.  I  well  remember  at  that  time  astounding  some 
of  my  friends  by  asserting  that,  under  favorable  conditions 
and  a  due  relation  between  the  amount  of  land  and  slaves, 
there  would  be  no  loss  at  all,  but  only  a  change  of  form  of 
labor.  I  illustrated  this  then,  and  I  would  illustrate  it 
now,  as  follows :  Suppose  I  own  a  certain  amount  of  land, 
and  slaves  enough  to  work  it ;  obviously  the  value  of  the 
whole  property  would  be  determined  by  the  resulting  aver 
age  income.  But  it  will  be  admitted,  and  subsequent  events 
have  proved,  that  the  same  land  worked  faithfully  by  free 
hired  labor  would  make  fully  as  much  income.  Evidently, 
then,  the  value  of  the  property  would  be  unchanged ;  the 
value  of  the  land  alone  after  emancipation  would  be  equal 
to  the  value  of  land  and  slaves  before.  In  other  words,  the 
whole  value  of  the  slaves  would  be  transferred  bodily  over 
to  the  land.  I  repeat,  then,  that  if  after  emancipation  the 
Negroes  had  continued  to  work  faithfully  for  wages,  the 
products  of  the  land  would  have  been  undiminished,  and 
therefore  there  would  have  been  no  perceptible  loss  of  prop 
erty  at  all.  The  great  loss  of  property  and  the  awful  pros 
tration  of  the  South  was  wholly  the  result  of  the  complete 
disorganization  of  the  labor  system.  An  old  system  had 
been  destroyed,  the  new  had  not  yet  been  established.  The 
whole  trouble  was  the  unfortunate  suddenness  of  the  change 
and  the  time  necessary  for  readjustment.  It  is  impossible 
on  any  other  view  to  account  for  the  rapid  recuperation  of 
the  South.  In  many  places,  it  is  true,  the  recuperation  was 
slow ;  in  some  places  the  recuperation  has  not  taken  place  at 
all ;  but  this  is  only  because  the  reorganization  of  labor  has 
been  slower  or  has  not  taken  place  at  all.  This  is  the  case, 
for  example,  on  the  coast  of  Georgia  already  mentioned, 
and  in  many  other  places.  The  number  of  blacks  in  these 
places  is  too  great  to  feel  the  influence  of  the  whites.  The 
community  is  essentially  African,  and  therefore  with  little 
or  no  ambition  to  improve.  Living  is  easy  with  even  a 
minimum  of  labor.  The  Negroes  are  unwilling  to  work  for 
wages.  The  whites  in  despair  have  mostly  moved  away  and 
abandoned  the  cultivation  of  their  lands.  On  this  view  it 
is  easy  to  account  for  individual  cases  of  utter  loss — of  re- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  359 

duction  from  affluence  to  abject  poverty.     But  such  cases 
are  exceptions. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  slaves  are  not  property  at  all  in 
the  sense  that  other  things  are  property.  They  are  not,  and 
never  were,  regarded  at  the  South  as  mere  chattels,  though 
doubtless  too  much  so  in  many  cases.  Slavery  is  only  the 
right,  or  at  least  the  power,  to  control  labor.  Wherever 
capital  controls  labor  there  is  slavery.  If  slave  labor  in  any 
case  is  more  profitable  than  free  labor,  it  is  only  because  it 
is  more  controllable. 

ETHNOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE  PROBLEM. 

Under  this  general  head  come  several  questions  of  funda 
mental  importance.  Among  these  I  discuss,  first — 

(a)  The  Laivs  of  the  Effects  of  Race  Contact. 

The  laws  determining  the  effects  of  contact  of  species, 
races,  varieties,  etc.,  among  animals  may  be  summed  up 
under  the  formula,  "  The  struggle  for  life  and  the  survival 
of  the  fittest."  It  is  vain  to  deny  that  the  same  law  is  ap 
plicable  to  the  races  of  man  also.  All  the  factors  of  organic 
evolution  are  carried  forward  into  human  evolution,  only 
they  are  modified  by  an  additional  and  higher  factor, 
Eeason,  in  proportion  to  the  dominance  of  that  factor — i.  e., 
in  proportion  to  civilization.  In  organic  evolution  the  con 
tact  of  two  diverse  forms  determines  either  the  extinction  of 
the  weaker  or  else  its  relegation  to  a  subordinate  place  in 
the  economy  of  Nature ;  the  weaker  is  either  destroyed  or 
seeks  safety  by  avoiding  competition.  In  human  evolution 
the  same  law  must  hold,  with  a  difference  to  be  determined 
by  reason.  At  the  outset  of  this  discussion,  therefore,  it 
is  necessary  to  lay  down  a  fundamental  proposition  which 
must  underlie  all  our  reasonings  on  this  subject :  Given  two 
races  widely  diverse  in  intellectual  and  moral  elevation,  and 
especially  in  capacity  for  self-government — i.  e.,  in  grade  of 
race  evolution ;  place  them  together  in  equal  numbers  and 
under  such  conditions  that  they  can  not  get  away  from 
one  another,  and  leave  them  to  work  out  for  themselves 
as  best  they  can  the  problem  of  social  organization,  and  the 
inevitable  result  will  be,  must  be,  ought  to  be,  that  the 
higher  race  will  assume  control  and  determine  the  policy 
of  the  community.  Not  only  is  this  result  inevitable,  but 


360  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

it  is  the  best  result  for  both  races,  especially  for  the  lower 
race. 

To  illustrate :  Suppose  there  be  cast  on  a  desert  island 
100  grown-up  people  and  100  children  of,  say,  ten  years 
old,  but  having  no  blood  relationship  the  one  set  with  the 
other,  and  a  community  be  there  organized.  Is  it  not 
inevitable — is  it  not  best  for  all  parties,  but  especially  for 
the  children — that  the  grown-up  people  should  assume  entire 
control  and  determine  the  policy  of  the  community,  while 
the  children  should  be  subordinated  to  their  authority  ?  Is 
not  this  just,  is  it  not  right  ?  Talk  about  violation  of  the 
rights  of  the  weaker  !  The  sacredest  of  all  rights,  because 
the  right  most  apt  to  be  violated,  is  the  right  of  the  weak 
and  the  ignorant  to  the  control  and  guidance  of  the  strong 
and  the  wise.  Would  not  even  compulsory  service  in  pro 
portion  to  ability  and  in  return  for  protection  and  guidance 
be  better  than  neglect  and  consequent  extermination  ? 

Or  suppose  1,000  Anglo-Saxons  and  the  same  number  of 
Australian  blacks  be  put  together  in  the  same  place  and 
surrounded  by  an  unscalable  wall  so  that  they  could  not 
run  away  from  the  experiment.  Is  it  not  evident  that  the 
founding  of  a  civilized  community  is  strictly  conditioned  on 
the  complete  supremacy  of  the  white  race  ?  The  disparity 
between  the  two  classes  in  this  case  is  fully  as  great  as  in 
the  last,  but  the  problem  would  be  far  more  difficult,  be 
cause  of  the  physical  strength  and  animal  ferocity  of  the 
Australian  as  compared  with  the  physical  weakness,  and 
especially  the  docility,  of  the  children.  But  in  some  way — 
peaceable  if  possible,  forcible  if  necessary — the  higher  race 
must  control  and  determine  the  policy  of  the  community. 
Here  again  even  compulsory  service,  if  necessary,  in  propor 
tion  to  ability  and  in  return  for  protection  and  guidance,  is 
best  for  both  races,  but  especially  for  the  lower  race ;  for  the 
only  alternative  for  them  is  extermination.  You  may  call 
it  slavery  if  you  like.  If  so,  then  slavery  under  certain  con 
ditions  is  right.  But  the  relation,  if  kindly  and  wisely  ad 
ministered,  is  not  slavery  in  any  philosophic  sense. 

We  have  said  above  that  the  inevitable  result  of  such  con 
tact  is  either  subordination  of  some  kind  or  degree,  or  else 
extermination.  Which  it  will  be,  depends  on  the  char 
acter  of  the  two  races,  especially  the  lower.  If  it  be  in  the 
early  stages  of  race-evolution,  and  therefore  plastic,  docile, 
imitative,  some  form  of  subordination  will  be  the  result ; 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  it  be  highly  specialized  and  rigid, 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  361 

extermination  is  unavoidable.  The  Negro  is  probably  the 
best  type  of  the  former  and  the  American  Indian  of  the  latter. 
Now,  the  condition  of  things  at  the  South  to-day,  though 
certainly  not  identical,  is  similar  to  that  described  above. 
Here  we  have  two  races  widely  different  in  grade  of  evolu 
tion,  in  nearly  equal  numbers  in  the  same  place.  The  dif 
ference  in  grade  may  not  be  as  great  as  that  described 
above ;  but,  if  not,  we  owe  it  to  the  previous  condition  of 
subordination  to  the  white  race.  The  result,  therefore, 
must  be  similar,  though  certainly  not  identical  with  the 
cases  described  above.  As  a  broad  general  fact,  control  of 
some  kind  or  degree  must  be  in  the  hands  of  the  superior 
race.  I  do  not  say  that  the  best  form  of  such  control  is 
slavery.  If  it  ever  were  the  best  form  (as  it  probably  once 
was),  it  is  not  so  now.  The  Negro  under  slavery,  and  by 
means  of  slavery  (for  in  no  other  way  was  close  and  peace 
able  contact  of  the  two  races  possible),  has  been  developed 
above  slavery.  Slavery  was  probably  at  one  time  the  only 
natural  or  even  possible  relation  between  the  two  races,  and 
was  therefore  right.  The  evils  were  not  in  the  institution, 
but  in  its  abuses.  But  by  race-evolution  of  the  Negro  this 
relation  became  less  and  less  natural,  and  therefore  less  and 
less  right.  It  was  probably  becoming  wrong  before  the  war. 
Even  without  a  war,  and  an  emancipation  proclamation,  I 
believe  slavery  would  certainly  have  come  to  an  end,  not  by 
the  external  pressure  of  a  foreign  sentiment,  but  by  the  in 
ternal  pressure  of  race-growth.  The  race-evolution  of  the 
Negro  had  gone  as  far  as  it  was  possible  under  the  condi 
tions  of  slavery.  Freedom  in  some  form  or  degree  was 
necessary  for  its  further  evolution.  I  say  "  some  form  or 
degree  " ;  for  the  right  to  freedom,  as  we  understand  it  in 
this  country,  has  not  yet  been  achieved  by  the  Negro  race  in 
the  South,  as  a  whole.  By  slavery  the  Negro  has  been  edu 
cated  up  to  the  right  to  some  measure  of  freedom,  but  not 
as  a  race  to  complete  freedom.  Some  form  or  degree  of 
control  by  the  white  race  is  still  absolutely  necessary.  I 
mean  not  personal  control,  but  control  of  State  policy. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  some  device  by  means  of  which 
the  policy  of  the  community  shall  be  substantially  under 
the  control  of  those  alone  who  are  most  capable  of  self-gov 
ernment  is  the  absolute  condition  of  civilization  there.  What 
is  the  best  legal  device  for  this  purpose  is  just  the  problem 
to  be  worked  out  by  the  Southern  people,  and  they  will 
work  it  out  if  let  alone. 


362  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

The  Wide  Significance  of  the  Problem. 

It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  importance  to  the  South 
of  this  problem,  for  the  very  existence  of  a  civilized  com 
munity  there  is  conditioned  on  its  successful  solution.  But 
it  is  also  a  problem  of  widest  application,  affecting  all  the 
races  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Everywhere  the  white  race 
is  pushing  its  way  among  lower  races.  Everywhere,  now 
that  slavery  is  inadmissible,  the  result  is  gradual  extinction 
of  the  lower  race.  And  this  tendency  to  destroy  lower 
races  is  steadily  increasing  with  the  increased  energy  of 
modern  civilization.  Is  this  result  inevitable  ?  If  not, 
how  is  it  to  be  avoided  ?  Nowhere  are  the  opportunities 
for  the  successful  solution  of  this  question  so  favorable  as 
at  the  South  to-day.  In  the  first  place,  the  problem  is 
a  more  pressing  one  there  than  anywhere  else ;  it  must  be 
solved,  and  that  speedily.  In  the  second  place,  the  Negro 
is  the  very  best  race  that  could  be  selected  for  the  pur 
pose.  As  this  is  an  important  point,  I  stop  a  moment  to 
explain. 

In  this  regard  the  inferior  races  may  be  divided  into  two 
groups — viz.,  those  which  are  inferior  because  undeveloped, 
and  those  which  are  so  because  developed,  perhaps  highly 
developed,  in  a  limited  way  or  in  a  wrong  direction.  Eaces 
of  the  first  group  may  be  called  generalized ;  they  are  plas 
tic,  adaptable  to  new  conditions,  and  therefore  easily  molded 
by  contact  with  higher  races.  Those  of  the  second  group 
are  specialized ;  they  are  rigid,  unadaptable  to  new  condi 
tions.  The  Negro  is  the  best  type  of  the  first  group,  and 
perhaps  the  Chinese  of  the  second  group.  The  Chinese 
are  a  highly  developed  race,  but  extremely  rigid  under  the 
influence  of  other  races.  The  Japanese  are  far  more  plastic. 
The  Negro  has  many  fine  and  hopeful  qualities.  He  is  plas 
tic,  docile,  impressionable,  sympathetic,  imitative,  and  there 
fore  in  a  high  degree  improvable  by  contact  with  a  superior 
race  and  under  suitable  conditions.  It  is  doubtful  if  any 
other  race  could  have  so  thrived  and  improved  under  slavery 
as  the  Negro  has  done.  But,  although  the  Negro  by  means 
of  slavery  has  been  raised  above  slavery,  it  would  be  a  great 
mistake  to  suppose  that  he  has  yet  reached  the  position  of 
equality  with  the  white  race — that  unassisted  he  can  found 
a  free  civilized  community.  The  question,  therefore,  still 
remains,  What  is  the  just  and  rational  relation  that  should 
subsist  between  the  two  races  ?  It  is  the  problem  of  race- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  363 

contact  everywhere,  but  here  under  conditions  most  favor 
able  for  successful  solution. 

Objections. 

Doubtless  many  objections  will  be  raised  against  the  fore 
going  positions.  Many  persons  will  not  even  admit  the 
gravity  of  the  problem,  or  that  any  solution  is  necessary. 
For  them,  the  formula,  "  All  men  are  born  equal,"  is  a  suf 
ficient  solution.  They  say  that  the  Southern  people  are 
wholly  wrong  in  imagining  any  difficulty  in  the  matter — 
that  elsewhere  among  civilized  peoples,  as,  for  example,  in 
Europe  and  in  New  England,  Negroes  are  treated  much  like 
people  of  other  and  whiter  color.  True ;  but  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  relative  numbers'  is  a  prime  factor  in 
the  question.  If  there  be  only  a  few  of  a  lower  race  scat 
tered  about  in  a  community,  we  can  afford  to  recognize,  nay 
more,  to  patronize — nay  more,  if  it  serves  any  purpose,  to 
lionize  them.  But  when  the  numbers  are  equal  or  nearly 
so,  when  there  is  a  struggle  between  the  two  races  for  con 
trol  of  the  policy  of  the  community,  the  case  is  very  differ 
ent.  The  higher  race  must  take  control.  There  is  not  a 
civilized  community  in  the  world  that  would  not  demand 
this.  The  Hindu  visitor  in  England  is  treated  with  respect, 
and  even  lionized,  but  in  India  the  race  line  is  drawn  nearly 
as  sharply  as  it  is  at  the  South,  and  yet  the  Hindu  is  a 
Caucasian — aye,  even  an  Aryan  people.  See,  again,  the  rela 
tion  between  the  English  and  the  aboriginal  Australian  or 
the  New  Zealander  whenever  they  come  in  close  contact. 
If  the  problem  is  not  so  serious  in  these  countries,  it  is  only 
because  there  is  still  room  enough  and  to  spare — the  lower 
race  may  withdraw  itself  from  close  contact,  if  it  so  desires. 
It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  feeling  which  draws  the  race 
line  is  not  peculiar  to  the  South,  but  is  found  everywhere 
under  similar  conditions.  Nor  is  it  a  matter  of  political 
party.  Northern  Republicans,  settling  at  the  South,  soon 
catch  the  infection. 

But  it  will  be  objected  again  that  any  relation  between 
the  races  other  than  that  of  complete  equality  in  all  re 
spects  is  manifestly  in  conflict  with  the  fundamental  law  of 
the  nation,  and  especially  the  recent  amendments  of  the 
Constitution.  I  sincerely  hope  not.  I  hope  and  believe 
that  there  may  be  found  some  just  and  rational  method  of 
solving  this  problem  which  will  not  be  in  conflict  with 
2 


364  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

fundamental  law.  But  if  not — if  there  be  indeed  a  radi 
cal  discordance,  an  irreconcilable  conflict  between  funda 
mental  law  and  the  position  taken  above — then  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say,  So  much  the  worse  for  the  fundamental  law 
and  the  constitutional  amendments,  for  it  only  shows  that 
these  are  themselves  in  conflict  with  the  still  more  funda 
mental  laws  of  Nature,  which  are  the  laws  of  God.  If  it  be 
so,  then  the  South  is  very  sorry,  but  it  can't  be  helped. 
There  is  a  law  of  self-preservation  for  communities  as  well 
as  for  individuals,  and  this  law  takes  precedence  of  all  other 
laws.  It  is  a  higher  law  if  you  like.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  in  1850  Massachusetts,  too,  preached  a  higher  law  than 
the  Constitution.  If  ever  there  were  a  case  in  which  the 
doctrine  of  a  higher  law  was  justifiable,  surely  it  is  this.  It 
is  true  that  sacrifice  of  the  individual  freely  to  the  State  is 
noble.  It  is  true  that  Socrates — not  to  mention  a  still 
higher  and  diviner  example — subordinated  the  law  of  self- 
preservation  itself  to  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  we  reverence 
him  for  so  doing.  But  remember,  first,  that  this  was  done 
on  high  ethical,  not  legal,  grounds;  and,  secondly,  that 
when,  as  in  this  case,  the  question  is  that  of  preservation, 
not  of  the  individual,  but  of  the  community,  of  civilization, 
of  the  interests  of  humanity,  the  law  of  self-preservation 
stands  on  the  highest  ethical  as  well  as  the  strictest  legal 
grounds.  In  this  case  the  right  of  self-preservation  becomes 
the  duty  of  self-preservation. 

The  whites,  I  believe,  desire  earnestly — more  earnestly  than 
can  be  well  imagined  by  those  at  a  distance — the  real  best 
interests  of  the  blacks.  They  earnestly  desire  their  elevation 
both  by  education  and  by  acquisition  of  property.  There  can 
be  no  better  evidence  of  this  than  the  fact  that  nearly  the 
whole  expense  (ninety  per  cent  in  South  Carolina)  of  the 
education  of  the  blacks  is  borne  by  the  whites.  They  would 
grant,  I  am  sure,  every  just  right ;  but  all  on  the  one  con 
dition  that  in  some  way  the  whites  shall,  for  the  present  at 
least,  substantially  control  the  policy  of  the  State.  This  is 
an  absolute  necessity  at  present  and  until  some  better  solu 
tion  of  the  problem  be  devised,  until  some  better  line  than 
the  race-line  be  drawn  between  the  capables  and  the 
incapables.  That  this  is  true  is  plainly  shown  by  the  dis 
astrous  results  of  the  brief  reign  of  carpet-baggers  sustained 
by  Negro  votes  after  the  war,  and  the  immediate  restoration 
of  order  and  prosperity  so  soon  as  the  whites  again  assumed 
control. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  365 

But  it  will  be  objected  again  that  the  race-line  is  artifi 
cial,  and  therefore  unjust  and  irrational,  and  that  there 
are  many  blacks  more  capable  of  intelligently  directing  the 
policy  of  the  State  than  some  whites.  Yes,  this  is  true. 
But  are  not  all  lines  more  or  less  artificial?  Can  there  be 
anything  more  artificial  than  the  age-line  ?  Are  there  not 
many  persons  under  twenty-one  more  capable  than  many 
over  twenty-one  ?  In  this  case,  it  is  true,  the  admitted  in 
justice  will  be  speedily  removed  by  advancing  age.  But  so 
in  the  other,  also,  the  admitted  injustice  will,  we  hope,  be 
removed,  though  not  so  speedily,  by  race-growth,  race-educa 
tion.  In  both  cases  it  is  an  age-line — in  the  one  case  of  the 
individual,  in  the  other  of  the  race.  The  one  is  no  more 
unjust  than  the  other. 

But  again  it  will  be  objected  that  the  race-line  is  wholly 
the  result  of  race-prejudice,  and  this  in  its  turn  only  a  rem 
nant  of  slavery.  It  may,  indeed,  be  partly  the  result  of 
race-prejudice,  but  not,  I  think,  a  remnant  of  slavery.  The 
race-prejudice  is  not  confined  to  the  South.  On  the  con 
trary,  it  is  probably  less  there  than  elsewhere.  But  race- 
prejudice  or  race-repulsion,  to  use  a  stronger  term,  is  itself 
not  a  wholly  irrational  feeling.  It  is  probably  an  instinct 
necessary  to  preserve  the  blood  purity  of  the  higher  race. 
But  of  this  I  shall  have  more  to  say  hereafter. 

(b)  The  Principles  of  Race-improvement. 

1  have  spoken  of  the  color-line  as  a  race-age-line,  which, 
even  though  no  better  line  could  be  drawn,  would  not  re 
main,  but  be  eventually  removed  by  race-development.  This 
leads  me  to  speak  of  the  principles  of  race-improvement. 

It  has  been  imagined  by  many  over-sanguine  persons  that 
the  whole  race  problem  will  be  speedily  solved  by  public- 
school  education.  This,  I  suppose,  is  the  form  of  solution 
present  in  the  minds  of  most  people.  I  am  quite  sure  this 
is  to  some  extent  a  delusion.  Education  has  done  much 
for  the  Negro,  but  it  will  not  solve  the  problem  in  this  gen 
eration,  nor  in  many  generations.  The  education  of  the 
individuals  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  evolution  of 
the  race.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  evolution  of 
races  is  largely  determined  by  the  same  factors  that  deter 
mine  the  evolution  of  the  organic  kingdom.  Now,  there 
are  some  biologists  of  highest  rank  who  go  so  far  as  to  deny 
that  individual  acquirements  can  be  inherited  at  all.  If 


366  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

these  biologists  are  right,  then  education  of  individuals  does 
not  improve  the  race  at  all.  I  do  not  agree  with  these  biolo 
gists,  and  have  given  my  reasons  in  a  previous  article.* 
Nevertheless,  it  is  certain  that  in  animals,  and  also  in  man, 
the  whole  improvement  of  the  individual  is  not  carried 
over  bodily  into  the  next  generation  by  inheritance,  but 
only  a  very  small  part."  A  small  part  of  the  improvement 
of  each  generation  is  carried  over  by  inheritance  to  the 
next,  and  this,  accumulating  from  age  to  age,  constitutes 
the  gradual  evolution  of  the  race.  Thus  the  education  of 
the  individual  is  one  thing  and  the  evolution  of  the  race  is 
another  and  very  different  thing.  The  one  is  a  question  of 
a  few  years,  the  other  a  question  of  centuries,  perhaps  mil 
lenniums.  The  truth  is,  education — i.  e.,  school  education, 
book  education — is  usually  regarded  as  a  panacea  for  all  the 
evils  of  society.  But  this  is  a  false  and  very  pernicious 
view.  The  experimental  philosophy  of  the  last  age,  and 
still  "prevalent  in  this,  would  make  the  whole  intellectual 
and  moral  capital  of  every  individual  the  result  of  his  own 
individual  acquirement.  This  is  an  arrogant  philosophy. 
It  exalts  too  much  the  importance  'of  the  individual,  and 
has  had  much  to  do  with  many  of  the  evils  of  society  of  the 
present  day.  But  one  of  the  most  important  recent  modifi 
cations  of  our  philosophy  of  life,  forced  upon  us  by  the 
theory  of  evolution,  is  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  a 
very  large  part  of  every  man's  intellectual  and  moral  capital 
comes  by  inheritance.  In  animals  all  or  nearly  all  is  in 
herited  ;  in  man  a  part  is  inherited  and  a  part  individually 
acquired.  The  higher  the  race,  the  larger  is  the  proportion 
of  individual  acquirement.  But  in  all  cases  the  inherited 
bank  account  is  continually  growing  from  generation  to 
generation  by  small  additions  from  individual  acquisition. 
The  growing  inheritance  constitutes  the  evolution  of  the 
race. 

But  some  will  object  that,  so  far  as  the  evidence  of  the 
schools  is  concerned,  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  regard 
ing  the  Negro  as  at  all  lower  than  the  white  race.  On  the 
contrary,  the  Negro  pupils  show  remarkable  brightness.  This 
is  probably  true.  They  do  indeed  show  brightness,  quick 
ness  of  memory,  keenness  of  senses,  precocity  of  perceptive 
faculties.  These  qualities  are  very  characteristic  of  nearly 
all  lower  races  (and,  indeed,  also  of  animals) ;  but  they 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  reflective,  originating, 

*  The  Factors  of  Evolution,  etc.    The  Monist  for  July,  1891. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  367 

rational  faculties  which  develop  late,  and  show  themselves 
in  active  life  rather  than  in  school.  It  is  in  these  highest 
faculties  alone  that  the  great  difference  exists. 

Again :  In  these  modern  times  there  is  a  strong  tendency 
to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  formal  education  (i.  e., 
school  education,  book  education)  as  compared  with  informal 
education.  Now,  in  all  of  us,  but  especially  in  lower  races, 
it  is  the  informal  education — that  which  comes  by  contact 
with  higher  individuals  and  higher  races — that  is  by  far  the 
most  important  in  the  formation  of  character,  and  there 
fore  for  self-government  and  fitting  for  citizenship.  The 
simple  contact  with  the  white  race  in  slavery  times,  and  the 
same  contact  together  with  the  necessity  of  self-support 
since  emancipation,  has  done  more  for  the  elevation  of 
the  Negro  than  school  education  alone  could  possibly 
have  done.  Not  only  has  the  Negro  been  elevated  to  his 
present  condition  by  contact  with  the  white  race,  but  he  is 
sustained  in  that  position  wholly  by  the  same  contact,  and 
whenever  that  support  is  withdrawn  he  relapses  again  to  his 
primitive  state.  The  Negro  race  is  still  in  childhood;  it 
has  not  yet  learned  to  walk  alone  in  the  paths  of  civilization. 
In  the  South  to-day  wherever  the  whites  predominate,  so 
that  the  policy  of  the  community  is  determined  by  them 
alone,  the  Negroes  are  industrious,  thrifty,  commencing  to 
acquire  property,  and,  in  fact,  improving  in  every  way.  But, 
on  the  contrary,  wherever  the  Negroes  are  largely  in  excess,  as 
in  some  portions  of  the  coast  regions  of  the  South  Atlantic 
and  Gulf  States,  so  that  the  influence  of  the  whites  is 
scarcely  felt  and  the  community  is  essentially  African,  the 
Negroes  are  rapidly  falling  back  into  savagery,  and  even  re 
suming  many  of  their  original  pagan  rites  and  superstitions. 

(c)  Principles  of  Race-mixture. 

Another  proposed  solution  of  the  problem  is  complete 
race-mixture.  Race-mixture  often  produces  good  effects : 
why  not  this?  I  know  of  no  American  writer  of  distinc 
tion  who  has  proposed  this  solution,  but  some  thoughtful 
English  writers  see  no  other  solution  possible.  This  brings 
me  to  discuss  this  subject  in  the  light  of  biology,  and 
especially  of  evolution. 

In  a  previous  article,  on  Genesis  of  Sex  (Popular  Science 
Monthly,  November,  1879),  I  have  treated  this  subject 
more  fully  on  the  biological  side,  and  in  another  article, 


368  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

on  Mixture  of  Eaces  (Berkeley  Quarterly  for  April,  1880), 
I  have  applied  the  biological  principles  to  the  subject  of 
human  progress.  I  can  here  only  give  a  brief  resume,  re 
ferring  the  reader  for  fuller  details  to  the  articles  men 
tioned. 

Darwin,  by  abundant  and  conclusive  experiments,  has 
shown  that  in  plants  in  which  the  flowers  are  bisexual — i.  e., 
contain  both  stamens  and  pistils — and  are  thus  self -fertil 
izing,  if  self-fertilization  be  prevented  and  cross-fertilization 
between  different  flowers  of  the  same  plant,  or,  still  better, 
between  flowers  of  different  plants  of  the  same  species,  be 
effected,  the  result  will  be  more  and  larger  seeds,  and  there 
fore  more  and  healthier  offspring,  than  in  the  case  of  self- 
fertilization.  Now,  this  experiment  undoubtedly  furnishes 
the  key  to  the  explanation  of  the  advantages  of  sexual  over 
other  forms  of  generation,  and  the  object  of  its  introduc 
tion,  as  well  as  of  much  else  in  the  process  of  evolution. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  non-sexual  preceded  sexual 
modes  of  generation,  and  that  the  sexual  modes  were  intro 
duced  in  order  thereby  to  bring  about  cross-fertilization ; 
and,  furthermore,  that  throughout  the  whole  evolution  of 
the  organic  kingdom  the  constant  effort  of  Nature  has  been 
to  bring  about  an  increasing  diversity  of  the  crossing  indi 
viduals  up  to  a  limit  which  will  be  presently  explained ; 
and,  finally,  that  the  object  of  all  this,  or  at  least  its  effect, 
has  been  to  produce  better  and  better  results  in  the  off 
spring. 

The  steps  of  this  process  were  briefly  as  follows :  (1) 
First  there  was  only  the  simplest  conceivable  form  of  gen 
eration,  viz.,  that  by  fission — fissiparous  generation.  Here 
there  is  not  even  the  distinction  between  parent  and  off 
spring.  (2)  Next  there  was  generation  by  budding — 
gemmiparous  generation — but  from  any  part  alike.  Here 
first  emerges  the  distinction  of  parent  and  offspring,  for 
the  bud  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  original  organism.  (3) 
Then,  by  the  law  of  specialization,  the  function  of  budding 
is  relegated  to  a  particular  part,  and  we  have  a  budding 
organ.  (4)  Then  by  another  general  law  the  budding  or 
gan  is  transferred  for  greater  safety  to  an  interior  surface, 
and  thus  simulates  an  ovary,  though  not  a  true  ovary.  (5) 
Then  this  organ  develops  two  kinds  of  cells — sperm-cell  and 
germ-cell.  Here  for  the  first  time  we  have  the  sexual  ele 
ments — male  and  female — which  by  their  union  produce  the 
ovum,  which  in  its  turn  develops  into  the  offspring.  This 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  369 

is  the  lowest  form  of  sexual  generation.  We  have  male  and 
female  elements,  but  not  male  and  female  organs,  much  less 
male  and  female  individuals.  (6)  The  next  step  is  the 
separation  of  the  two  organs,  male  and  female — spermary 
and  ovary — which  prepare  the  two  elements,  sperm-cell  and 
germ-cell ;  but  these  organs  yet  remain  in  the  same  indi 
vidual.  This  is  hermaphroditism,  almost  universal  among 
plants  and  very  common  among  lower  animals.  (7)  The 
next  step  is  the  introduction  of  devices  of  many  kinds  to  pre 
vent  self-fertilization  and  insure  cross-fertilization  between 
different  hermaphroditic  individuals.  (8)  The  next  step  is 
the  separation  of  the  sexual  organs  in  different  individuals, 
thus  entirely  preventing  self-fertilization ;  and  the  introduc 
tion  of  sex-attraction,  insuring  cross-fertilization.  (9)  The 
next  step  is  the  gradually  increasing  diversity  of  the  crossing 
individuals — i.  e.,  of  the  males  and  females.  (10)  The  last 
step,  and  the  one  which  specially  concerns  us  here,  is  the 
crossing  of  males  and  females  of  different  varieties  of  the 
same  species.  These  are  the  principal  steps ;  but  of  course 
there  are  many  gradations  between. 

Now,  the  effect,  and  therefore  the  object,  of  this  whole 
process  of  gradual  differentiation  is  the  bringing  about  of 
better  results  in  the  offspring.  Why  the  results  are  better, 
is  more  obscure.  It  is  undoubtedly  due  in  some  way  to  the 
increasing  diversity  of  the  qualities  inherited  by  the  off 
spring  from  the  two  parents — the  funding  of  diverse  quali 
ties  in  a  common  offspring.  This  may  improve  the  off 
spring  in  two '  ways  :  First,  by  the  struggle  for  life  among 
the  many  qualities,  good  and  bad,  strong  and  weak,  inher 
ited  from  both  sides,  and  the  survival  of  the  strongest  and 
best  qualities.  Secondly,  diversity  of  inheritance  tends  to 
variation  of  offspring,  and  this  furnishes  materials  for  nat 
ural  selection,  and  thus  hastens  the  process  of  evolution. 
But  there  is  a  limit  to  the  good  effects  of  this  differentiation 
of  uniting  individuals  ;  for  the  union  of  individuals  of  dif 
ferent  species  is  either  less  fertile  or  wholly  infertile.  In 
other  words,  when  the  difference  between  the  uniting  indi 
viduals  reaches  the  extent  which  we  call  species,  then  Na 
ture  practically  forbids  the  bans.  I  say  practically  forbids. 
There  are  many  degrees  of  fertility  and  infertility  between 
species.  In  most  cases  the  infertility  is  absolute — i.  e.,  the 
union  is  without  offspring.  In  some  there  is  offspring,  but 
the  offspring  is  a  sterile  hybrid  which  dies  without  issue. 
In  some  the  hybrid  is  fertile,  but  its  offspring  is  feeble,  and 


370  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

therefore  quickly  eliminated  in  the  struggle  for  life  with 
the  pure  stock,  and  becomes  extinct  in  a  few  generations ; 
or  else  it  is  more  fertile  with  the  pure  stock  than  with 
other  hybrids,  and  therefore  is  absorbed  into  one  or  other 
of  the  parent  stocks,  and  the  original  species  remain  dis 
tinct.  If  this  were  not  so,  there  would  be  no  such  thing  as 
species  at  all. 

Now,  to  sum  up  and  apply :  It  is  well  known  that  in  the 
higher  animals  close,  consanguineous,  in-and-in  breeding 
continued  for  a  long  time  weakens  the  stock,  while  judicious 
crossing  of  varieties  strengthens  the  stock.  But  there  must 
be  a  limit  beyond  which  the  effect  again  becomes  bad ;  for 
when  the  difference  between  the  uniting  individuals  reaches 
the  extent  of  species,  Nature  forbids  the  bans — i.  e.,  there  is 
no  result  at  all.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  we  may  repre 
sent  the  effect  of  cross-breeding  among  higher  animals  by  a 
sinuous  curve,  as  shown  below  : 


DIAGRAM  ILLUSTRATING  THE  EFFECTS  OF  CROSS-BREEDING. 

In  this  diagram  the  horizontal  line  represents  the  average 
results  of  indiscriminate  breeding,  or  the  ordinary  typical 
condition  of  the  species.  Distance  of  points  on  this  line 
represents  the  amount  of  difference  of  uniting  individuals, 
and  the  sinuous  line  represents  the  varying  effects  of  cross 
ing  of  selected  varieties.  "Where  this  line  passes  below  the 
horizontal  line  it  shows  effects  below  the  average;  when 
above  that  line,  effects  above  the  average.  By  inspection  it 
is  seen  that  close  in-and-in  breeding,  a  a,  produces  bad  ef 
fects  ;  I  ~b  represent  ordinary  individual  differences,  the  cross 
ing  of  which  produces  average  results,  and  tends  to  main 
tain  the  average  level ;  v  v  represent  varieties,  the  crossing 
of  which  produces  good  results,  which  rise  to  a  maximum 
at  v'  v',  and  then  declining  again,  become  bad  or  below  the 
average  at  v"  v" ;  until,  finally,  when  the  difference  of  the 
uniting  individuals  reaches  the  extent  which  we  call  species, 
s  s,  then  the  result  becomes  infinitely  bad — i.  e.,  produces 
no  offspring.  In  a  general  way,  therefore,  the  diagram  rep 
resents  the  facts  of  cross-breeding. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  371 

Now,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  above  law  applies 
also  to  man,  with  perhaps  some  modifications,  to  be  deter 
mined  by  investigation.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  long- 
continued  consanguineous,  in-and-in  breeding  has  a  bad  ef 
fect  also  in  man,  and  probably  even  more  so  than  in  animals. 
I  am  well  aware  that  some  recent  writers  have  contested 
this  statement,  but  the  examples  cited  are  those  of  isolated 
communities  under  peculiarly  healthy  conditions ;  and, 
moreover,  the  argument  relates  only  to  the  physical  and  not 
to  the  psychical  nature.  But  it  is  the  psychical  nature 
which  is  peculiarly  sensitive,  and  which  we  are  specially 
concerned  with  here,  for  we  are  discussing  the  effects  on 
human  evolution  or  progress.  Bodily  health  and  strength 
are,  of  course,  a  necessary  underlying  condition ;  but  human 
evolution  is  spiritual,  not  bodily.  Organic  evolution  is  by 
change  of  form  and  making  of  new  species,  in  order  to 
come  into  harmony  with  an  ever-changing  environment. 
Man,  on  the  other  hand,  changes  the  environment  so  as  to 
bring  it  into  harmony  with  himself  and  his  wants;  and, 
therefore,  his  evolution  is  not  by  change  of  form  or  making 
of  new  species  of  man,  but  by  change  of  character  and  ele 
vation  of  the  plane  of  his  activity. 

But  to  return.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  consanguin 
eous  breeding  of  families,  true  breeding  in  isolated  com 
munities,  and  even  continuous  breeding  within  the  limits  of 
a  national  variety,  tend  in  various  degrees  to  fixedness  of 
character,  customs,  laws,  modes  of  thought  and  feeling,  and 
thus,  finally,  to  'rigidity  and  arrest  of  development ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  crossing  of  family  bloods,  communal 
bloods,  and  national  bloods  tends  not  only  to  strengthen 
physically  and  mentally  by  the  survival  of  the  best  qualities 
inherited  from  both  sides,  but  also,  and  much  more,  to  pre 
vent  fixedness  of  character  and  arrest  of  development,  to 
confer  plasticity,  comprehensiveness,  many-sidedness,  and 
thus  to  promote  progress.  No  doubt  commerce,  travel,  edu 
cation,  all  tend  in  the  same  direction,  but  mixture  of  blood 
and  diverse  inheritance  is  the  most  direct  and  potent  means 
of  accomplishing  this  result. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  effect  of  mixing  human  varie 
ties  is  similar  to  the  effect  of  mixing  animal  varieties,  and 
that  in  a  general  way  both  are  truly  represented  by  the  dia 
gram.  The  only  question  that  remains  is :  What  amount 
of  difference  produces  maximum  results ;  and  where,  if  any 
where,  do  bad  results  begin?  This  question  can  not  be 


372  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

answered  with  certainty;  but  it  seems  probable  that  the 
crossing  of  national  varieties,  and  perhaps  of  all  varieties 
within  the  limits  of  the  four  or  five  primary  races,  may  pro 
duce  good  effects ;  but  that  the  crossing  of  these  primary 
races  themselves  produces  bad  effects.  It  seems  probable 
that  in  the  evolution  of  man  from  the  animal  kingdom 
there  was  a  differentiation  into  varieties  so  strong  that  they 
may  be  regarded  as  incipient  species.  If  so,  then  the  di 
vergence  between  these  primary  races  has  passed  the  limit 
within  which  crossing  has  a  good  effect.  The  results  of 
such  crossing  partake  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  hybrids — 
they  are  less  strong  than  either  of  the  pure  races.  Race- 
aversion — which  certainly  exists,  though  it  may  be  over 
leaped  by  passion — is  probably  a  sign  of  a  difference  ap 
proaching  specific. 

This  conclusion,  reached  by  general  considerations  alone, 
is  substantially  confirmed  by  such  loose  observations  as  have 
been  made  on  such  crosses.  Opportunities  of  widest  ob 
servation  on  this  point  occur  at  the  South ;  but,  unfortu 
nately,  they  have  not  been  as  careful  and  scientific  as  we 
would  desire.  There  seems  little  doubt,  however,  that  mu- 
lattoes  have  not  the  strength  and  endurance  of  either  of  the 
pure  races.  It  is  certain  that  they  are  much  more  liable  to 
hereditary  diseases,  especially  the  different  forms  of  scrof 
ula.  It  is  almost  certain  that  when  they  marry  among  them 
selves  the  next  generation  is  even  still  feebler;  and  it  is 
probable,  though  not  certain,  that  in  a  few  generations  they 
would  die  out  unless  re-enforced  by  the  stronger  blood  of  the 
pure  races,  in  which  case,  of  course,  they  would  disappear 
by  absorption  into  the  one  race  or  the  other.  In  intellect 
the  mulatto  is  certainly  superior  to  the  Negro;  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  he  attains  even  the  mean  between  the  two  races ; 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  white  blood  does  not  lose  more 
than  the  black  gains  by  the  mixture.  These  conclusions  have 
been  reached  by  nearly  all  observers,  as,  for  example,  by 
Morton,  Nott,  Glidden,  Gobineau,  Ferrier,  etc.  I  know  of 
but  one  writer — Quatrefages — who  contests  them.  The  ques 
tion  is  a  very  complex  one.  Moral  influences  may  have 
much  to  do  with  the  dying  out  of  a  race.  The  anomalous 
position  of  the  mulatto,  recognized  by  neither  race,  may 
have  its  effect.  But  this  again  is  only  another  evidence 
that  successful  mixing  is  impossible. 

But  some,  even  here  in  America,  have  thought  that, 
whether  we  like  it  or  not,  whether  the  effect  of  mixture  be 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  373 

good  or  bad,  the  problem  is  going  to  solve  itself  in  this 
way.  I  am  not  sure,  but  I  think  they  are  mistaken.  The 
mixing  of  the  races  has  been  greatly  exaggerated  because 
observed  mostly  in  the  cities.  On  the  plantations  the  mixed 
breeds  have  always  been  rare.  In  the  next  place,  the  mixing 
is  becoming  less  and  less  every  day.  In  proportion  as  the 
Negroes  become  more  self-respecting,  they  withdraw  more 
and  more  from  this  kind  of  relation  with  the  whites,  and 
to  some  extent  from  the  mixed  breeds.  The  mixed  breeds 
are  not  increasing  in  number,  and,  as  already  said,  they  will 
either  die  out  or  be  absorbed  into  one  or  other  of  the  pure 
races.  In  addition  to  this  natural  and  spontaneous  with 
drawal,  nearly  if  not  quite  all  of  the  Southern  States  have 
passed  laws  forbidding  mixed  marriages.  In  this  regard, 
therefore,  the  color-line  is  likely  to  be  permanent.* 

DESTIKY  OF  THE  LOWER  KACES. 

The  extreme  interest  of  the  general  question  of  the  des 
tiny  of  the  lower  races,  and  its  close  connection  with  the 
question  in  hand,  induces  me  to  digress  here  in  order  to  dis 
cuss  it  very  briefly. 

If  the  views  presented  above  be  true,  then  for  the  lower 
races  everywhere  (leaving  out  slavery)  there  is  eventually 
but  one  of  two  alternatives — viz.,  either  extermination  or 
mixture.  But  if  mixture  makes  a  feeble  race,  then  this  also 
is  only  a  slower  process  of  extermination.  Is  extermination, 
then,  the  inexorable  fate  of  all  the  lower  races  ?  Shall  the 
pitiless  law  of  organic  evolution — the  law  of  destruction  of 
the  weak  and  the  survival  of  only  the  strongest  races — be  the 
law  of  human  evolution  also  ?  It  may  indeed  be  so,  but  let 
us  hope  not.  It  may  be  that  there  is  a  way  of  escape.  Let 
us  see. 

I  suppose  the  blue-eyed,  fair-haired  Teuton  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  black  on  the  other,  may  be  regarded  as  ex 
treme  types,  and  that  their  mixture  will  produce  the  worst 
results.  The  mixture  of  the  Spaniard  and  Indian  in  Mexico 
and  South  America  has  produced  a  hardy  and  prolific  race, 
although  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  result  in  social 

*  Some  years  ago  it  was  believed  and  stated  that  the  blacks  were  increasing 
much  faster  than  the  whites.  If  this  were  true,  they  would  soon  overrun  not 
only  the  South,  but  the  whole  country.  But  it  is  not  true.  The  belief  was  based 
on  false  statistics  which  are  now  corrected.  The  problem  is  serious  enough 
without  this  aggravation.  They  are  not  now  increasing  as  fast  as  the  whites,  on 
-account  of  the  much  higher  death-rate. 


374  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

organization  and  social  progress  has  not  been  encouraging. 
Bat  if  we  admit  the  result  in  this  case  as  more  favorable 
than  that  in  the  case  of  the  mixture  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
and  the  Negro,  may  we  not  in  this  fact  glimpse  a  hope  for 
the  lower  races  in  general  ?  The  primary  races,  though  wide 
apart  in  their  extreme  types,  approach  each  other  on  their 
margins.  Is  it  not  possible  that  these  marginal  varieties 
of  primary  races  may  approach  sufficiently  near  to  mix  with 
advantage,  and  thus  may  be  formed  secondary  types  that 
may  mix  successfully  with  even  the  extreme  types  ?  To 
illustrate:  If  the  connection  between  the  extreme  types 
form  an  arch  too  wide  to  be  stable,  may  not  each  extreme 
connect  with  a  more  intermediate  type  on  each  side,  and 
form  two  stable  arches  which  shall  be  the  abutments  of  a 
still  higher  central  arch  ?  If  mixing  is  possible  at  all,  it 
would  seem  that  it  must  be  by  such  gradual  approaches. 

Now,  there  are  many  reasons  for  believing  that  if  success 
ful  mixing  be  at  all  possible,  such  mixing  would  be  better 
for  humanity  than  extinction  of  the  lower  races  and  the 
survival  of  the  white  race  alone.  There  are  valuable  quali 
ties  in  the  lower  races  which  ought  not  to  be  lost,  which 
ought  to  be  incorporated  into  the  perfect  ideal  humanity 
for  which  we  hope ;  and  this  can  be  done  only,  or  at  least 
most  directly,  by  mixture.  The  effect  of  true  breeding  as 
already  seen  may  be  excellent  in  one  direction — i.  e.,  in  per 
fecting  certain  limited  qualities — but  tends  to  fix  and  finally 
to  petrify  character  and  arrest  progress.  Mixing  produces 
a  more  plastic  material,  a  better  clay,  a  more  generalized  and 
therefore  a  more  progressive  type.  Therefore  it  may  well 
be  that,  after  the  best  results  of  breeding  within  the  limits 
of  the  primary  races  have  been  attained  in  the  production 
of  the  highest  race  civilizations  in  several  directions,  then 
the  judicious  mixture,  as  explained  above,  of  these  perfected 
varieties,  will  produce  a  generalized  type  capable  of  indefi 
nite  progress  in  all  directions.  Civilization,  then,  will 
no  longer  be  Anglo-Saxon,  or  Teutonic,  or  European,  or 
Aryan,  or  Caucasian,  but  human.  If  something  like  this 
be  not  possible,  then  are  the  lower  races  indeed  doomed. 

Or,  to  put  it  another  way :  Any  civilization  is  long-lived 
in  proportion  as  it  is  general — i.  e.,  as  it  includes  more  of 
the  elements  of  a  complete  humanity.  Greek  civilization 
was  admirable,  but  simple,  narrow,  national.  Therefore, 
like  an  annual  plant,  it  grew  up  rapidly,  flowered  and  fruited 
gloriously,  and  died  quickly.  Roman  civilization  was  more 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  375 

general.  It  was  not  national  but  Mediterranean.  It  was 
longer-lived — its  trunk  more  solid  but  not  perennial.  It 
also  perished.  Modern  civilization  is  Aryan.  It  is  still 
more  general,  more  complex,  contains  more  elements  of 
humanity,  and  is  therefore  still  longer-lived.  But  unless  it 
incorporates  all  the  elements  of  a  perfect  humanity,  it  also 
must  perish.  If  there  be  indeed  valuable  qualities  in  the 
lower  races  and  characteristic  of  them  which  ought  to  be 
incorporated  in  a  perfect  humanity,  then  the  ideal  civiliza 
tion  must  include  these  also.  The  final  civilization  will 
thus  be  coextensive  with  human  nature,  with  the  earth  sur 
face,  and  with  the  life  of  humanity. 

After  this  digression  on  the  general  question  of  the  des 
tiny  of  the  lower  races,  we  return  to  the  immediate  subject 
in  hand — viz.,  the  adjustment,  in  the  light  of  the  preceding 
principles,  of  the  relation  between  the  two  races  in  the 
South  on  a  just  and  rational  basis.  On  this  strictly  prac 
tical  subject  I  shall  be  brief,  because  my  main  object  is  the 
exposition  of  principles,  not  their  application  in  practical 
politics.  If  the  question  be  only  viewed  in  the  right  spirit 
and  from  the  scientific  standpoint,  it  will  be  quickly  solved 
by  practical  men. 

The  problem  divides  itself  into  two  main  branches — viz., 
the  political  and  the  ethical.  The  political  is  the  more 
immediate  and  urgent,  and  therefore  taken  up  first ;  but  the 
ethical  is  more  fundamental. 


THE  POLITICAL  PROBLEM. 

Before  taking  up  any  special  mode  of  solution,  it  is  neces  - 
sary  to  insist  on  an  important  general  principle.  The  race 
problem,  like  all  complex  social  problems,  is  not  to  be  solved 
at  once  out  of  hand,  as  many  think.  We  have  had  far  too 
much  of  this  kind  of  solution  of  political  problems  already 
in  history.  A  true  solution  is  a  slow  process  of  evolution, 
having  many  steps,  each  adapted  to  the  existing  conditions. 
The  final  solution  is  only  reached  in  an  ideal  condition  of 
society.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  a  question  solving  itself. 
The  only  question  at  any  moment  is :  What  is  the  best  thing 
to  be  done  now  under  present  conditions  ?  The  problem  is 
a  complex  equation,  requiring  many  steps  in  its  solution. 
The  question  is,  What  is  the  best  next  step  ? 

Some  imagine  that  all  that  is  necessary  to  solve  the  prob 
lem  is  to  break  up  the  "  solid  South  " — that  parties  should 


376  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

divide  as  elsewhere  on  other  lines  than  the  color-line.  This, 
like  many  other  pretended  solutions,  is  a  mere  ignoring  of 
the  problem.  Eventually,  doubtless,  parties  must  so  divide, 
but  not  now,  nor  until  some  other  or  better  line  between  the 
capables  and  the  incapables  be  drawn  and  recognized.  The 
Negro  race  as  a  whole  is  certainly  at  present  incapable  of 
self-government  and  unworthy  of  the  ballot ;  and  their  par 
ticipation  without  distinction  in  public  affairs  can  only  re 
sult  in  disaster.  The  Negroes  themselves  are  beginning  to 
recognize  this.  They  are  withdrawing  themselves  more  and 
more  from  politics.  Everywhere  the  black  vote  is  small  in 
proportion  to  their  numbers.  And  this  is  due  not  wholly  to 
intimidation,  as  many  think.  Doubtless  intimidation  has 
been  used  in  the  South  as  elsewhere ;  perhaps  more  than 
elsewhere,  for  the  motive  was  stronger — viz.,  the  existence  of 
a  civilized  community.  But  this  is  not  the  only  nor  indeed 
the  principal  cause.  The  Negroes  now  see  that  their  first 
hopes  of  the  magical  power  of  the  ballot  were  fallacious. 
They  are  now  beginning  to  believe  that  the  whites  are  not 
their  enemies  but  their  friends,  and  are  better  able  to  take 
care  of  their  interests  than  they  are  themselves.  Thus,  even 
in  the  sea-coast  counties  of  Georgia,  which  I  have  recently 
visited,  where  the  blacks  outnumber  the  whites  in  some 
parts  ten  to  one,  and  where  intimidation  is  impossible  and 
never  was  attempted,  the  county  is  now  represented  in  the 
Legislature  by  white  men  alone.  The  same  thing  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  law  making  the  payment  of  a  poll-tax 
of  one  or  two  dollars  a  qualification  for  voting  practically 
disfranchises  nearly  all  the  blacks ;  not  because  they  can 
not  pay  it,  but  because  to  them  the  privilege  is  not  worth  so 
much. 

I  repeat,  then,  that  the  blacks  as  a  whole  are  unworthy 
of  the  ballot.  The  South  is  not  solid  against  the  North  or 
against  any  party  as  a  party,  but  she  is  solid  for  self-govern 
ment  by  the  white  race  as  the  only  self-governing  race. 
Until  some  better  line  be  drawn  defining  a  self-governing 
class,  she  is  obliged  to  be  solid.  That  some  such  better  line 
will  be  made  I  can  not  doubt,  for  the  color-line  pure  and  sim 
ple  can  not  continue.  It  is  not  only  manifestly  unjust,  and 
therefore  debauching  to  the  political  honesty  of  the  whites, 
but  is  a  constant  source  of  irritation,  and  therefore  fraught 
with  danger. 

But  the  question  returns :  By  what  just  and  legal  means 
can  we  secure  government  by  a  self-governing  class  alone  ? 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  377 

I  answer  without  hesitation :  By  a  limitation  of  the  ballot, 
by  a  qualification  for  voting,  both  of  education  and  of 
property.  I  see  no  possible  solution  but  this,  and  this  I 
believe  would  be  effectual.  It  would  be  perfectly  just  and 
perfectly  rational.  It  would  exclude  many  whites,  but  only 
such  as  should  be  excluded.  It  would  include  many  blacks, 
but  only  such  as  are  fit  to  vote.  I  said  a  qualification  both 
of  education  and  of  property.  Perhaps  most  persons  will 
agree  to  the  justice  of  the  former ;  but  I  regard  the  latter 
as  by  far  the  more  important.  It  is  so  not  only  nor  mainly 
on  the  ground  usually  assigned — viz.,  its  conservative  tend 
ency — but  also  and  chiefly  because  it  is  the  best  index  of  a 
self-governing  capacity.  In  the  higher  races,  in  advanced 
stages  of  civilization,  and  in  highly  cultured  communities 
there  are  doubtless  many  men  who  take'  no  heed  to  accumu 
late  property,  not,  however,  from  shiftlessness,  but  because 
they  have  higher  and  better  things  to  do.  They  are  so  busy 
with  higher  and  better  things  that  they  have  no  time  to 
make  money.  But  in  uncultured  men  generally,  and  es 
pecially  in  lower  races,  there  is  no  better,  I  might  almost 
say  there  is  no  other,  evidence  of  character  necessary  for 
the  exercise  of  the  ballot  than  the  steady  industry  and  self- 
denial  necessary  to  accumulate  property.  Mere  book  edu 
cation,  on  the  contrary,  though  easily  acquired  by  the 
Negro  on  account  of  his  quick  apprehensiveness,  has  little 
effect  on  character,  and  is  but  small  guarantee  for  self- 
governing  capacity. 

I  would  make  the  qualification  of  both  kinds  small — as 
small  as  is  at  all  consistent  with  effectiveness — because  I  recog 
nize  the  powerfully  educating  effect  of  the  ballot  itself. 
Freedom  educates  for  freedom,  and  therefore  should  be 
given  even  in  larger  measure  than  deserved.  Privilege 
educates  for  the  right  use  of  privilege,  and  therefore  as 
much  should  be  given  as  is  consistent  with  safety.  This  is 
a  true  principle  in  all  education,  whether  of  individuals,  of 
communities,  or  of  races.  But  although  the  ballot  educates 
for  the  right  use  of  the  ballot,  yet  its  reasonable  limitation 
is  a  still  more  potent  educator  ;  for  it  is  the  most  powerful 
of  all  inducements  to  improvement  of  all  kinds. 

The  golden  opportunity  for  the  introduction  of  these 
qualifications  was  certainly  at  the  time  of  the  reconstruc 
tion  of  the  Southern  States  immediately  after  the  war. 
I  well  remember  that  when  the  constitutional  convention  of 
South  Carolina  under  the  call  of  President  Johnson  met  at 


378  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

Columbia,  although  not  myself  a  member  of  that  conven 
tion,  I  urged  on  my  friends  who  were  members  the  necessity 
of  opening  at  once  the  franchise  to  both  races,  without  dis 
tinction,  but  making  an  educational  and  property  qualifica 
tion.  But  the  sentiment  of  the  South  was  not  yet  ripe  for 
such  a  policy.  If  such  qualifications  could  have  been  made 
at  that  time,  the  South  would  have  been  saved  all  the  hor 
rors  of  carpet-bag  rule.  But  it  is  vain  to  indulge  regret.  I 
suppose  it  was  impossible  at  that  time,  not  only  because  the 
South  was  unprepared,  but  also  because  even  if  it  had  been 
done  it  would  not  have  been  accepted  by  Congress.  Now, 
however,  that  the  State  governments  are  fully  established, 
it  can  be  done  if  the  whites  really  desire  it.  Some  qualifi 
cation  separating  the  capables  from  the  incapables,  the 
worthy  from  the  unworthy,  is  probably  the  greatest  want  of 
the  country  everywhere.  It  can  be  done  more  easily  at  the 
South  than  anywhere  else,  because  the  necessity  is  greater, 
and  because  of  the  wider  difference  between  the  intelligent 
and  unintelligent  classes  there. 

Some  feeble  attempts  have  been  made  in  this  direction 
in  certain  parts  of  the  South,  and  always  with  the  best 
effects.  In  many  States  a  law  making  payment  of  a  small 

E  oil-tax  of  one  or  two  dollars  a  condition  of  voting  dis- 
ranchises  a  large  majority  of  the  ignorant  blacks.  It  dis 
franchises  some  whites,  too,  but  this  is  no  objection. 
Other  and  less  justifiable  but  legal  means  have  been  used  to 
diminish  the  incapable  vote,  such  as  the  eight-ballot-box  law 
in  South  Carolina.  Mississippi  alone  has  gone  still  farther 
in  this  direction,  and  that  because  the  necessity  was  greater 
there  than  in  most  States.  In  the  recent  constitution  of 
that  State  there  is  a  qualification  for  voting,  including  the 
ability  to  read,  or  else  to  understand  and  interpret  the  con 
stitution  and  laws  (a  much  harder  condition  than  mere 
ability  to  read,  but  too  indefinite),  and  also  the  payment  of 
all  taxes,  including  a  poll-tax  of  two  dollars,  for  the  two 
preceding  years.  May  we  not  hope  that  these  qualifications 
will  be  increased  in  amount  and  extended  throughout  the 
South,  and  that  they  will  become  an  entering  wedge  to 
accomplish  the  same  result  throughout  the  whole  country  ? 
It  was  thought  by  some  that  limitation  of  suffrage  would 
diminish  representation  in  Congress.  This  is  still  an  open 
question,  but  probably  it  would  not.  (See  Cooley,  General 
Provisions  of  Constitutional  Law,  pp.  263,  264.)  But,  in 
any  case,  if  the  South  is  not  willing  to  sacrifice  some- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  379 

thing  for  the  sake  of  good  government,  she  does  not  de 
serve  it.* 

SOME  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  ETHICAL  PROBLEM  DISCUSSED. 

The  classes  of  society,  the  principles  on  which  they  are 
based,  and  how  far  they  are  rational  and  just,  this  is  the 
question  which  must  now  be  discussed,  for  the  so-called 
race-line  is  of  this  nature.  The  whites  and  blacks  at  the 
South  are  absolutely  separated  in  society.  They  have  sepa 
rate  churches,  separate  schools,  separate  colleges,  and  in 
large  measure  separate  cars,  separate  hotels,  etc.  In  the 
present  state  of  feeling  the  Negroes  themselves — many  of 
them — prefer  it  so.  Is  the  state  of  feeling  right  ?  It  is  evi 
dent  that  this  question  requires  a  discussion  of  some  very 
fundamental  ethical  principles. 

Nature  is  so  complex  that  it  can  not  be  understood  until 
simplified  by  classification.  Things  and  phenomena  can  not 
be  dealt  with  as  individuals,  for  they  are  too  numerous  and 
diversified ;  they  must  be  dealt  with  in  groups  or  classes. 
The  grouping  of  forces  and  phenomena  constitutes  physical 
science ;  the  grouping  of  forms  and  objects,  natural  history. 
The  process  of  grouping  in  physical  science  is  called  gen 
eralization,  in  natural  history  classification.  This  grouping 
is  the  most  fundamental  process  in  the  construction  of  sci 
ence.  Either  name  would  do,  but  we  shall  usually  call  it 
classification,  because  we  will  deal  with  grouping  of  forms 
and  objects. 

Now,  man's  mission  on  the  earth  is  to  understand  Nature. 
But  see  the  dilemma  in  which  the  human  mind  finds  itself. 
It  is  impossible  to  advance  a  single  step  in  science — i.  e., 
in  the  rational  comprehension  of  Nature — without  classifica 
tion  ;  and  yet  a  true  classification — i.  e.,  one  that  expresses 
the  true  relations  of  things — is  impossible  without  complete 
scientific  knowledge.  Therefore  he  is  compelled  to  make 
an  arbitrary,  artificial,  provisional  classification  of  some  sort, 
to  enable  him  to  manage  his  material.  Any  classification 
is  better  than  none ;  any  kind  of  order  is  better  than  chaos. 
By  the  use  of  this  provisional  classification  science  or  ra- 

*  Colonization  has  been  proposed  as  an  easy  solution  of  the  problem.  Some 
of  the  most  intelligent  of  the  Negroes  themselves — for  example,  Bishop  Turner, 
of  the  African  Methodist  Church— earnestly  advocate  this  plan.  I  say  nothing 
of  this  plan,  (1)  because  the  Negroes  very  naturally  refuse  to  colonize,  (2)  be 
cause  the  whites  themselves  would  be  loath  to  lose  so  valuable  a  laboring  class, 
and  (3)  because  this  method  would  not  touch  the  general  question  of  race-con- 

3 


380  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

tional  knowledge  is  gradually  accumulated,  and  this  knowl 
edge  becomes,  in  its  turn,  the  basis  of  a  natural  classifica 
tion.  But,  unfortunately,  often,  especially  in  higher  and 
more  complex  departments  of  thought,  the  provisional  char 
acter  of  the  first  classification  is  not  recognized,  and  the 
change  into  a  more  natural  classification,  which  ought  to 
take  place  gradually  as  science  advances,  is  resisted  by  a  too 
rigid  conservatism,  and,  therefore,  can  only  take  place  by 
revolution. 

This  law  of  the  advance  of  rational  thought  is  so  funda 
mental  and  important  that  I  must  try  to  make  it  clear  by 
illustrations.  I  might  use  for  this  purpose  any  department 
of  science,  but  I  select  botany  as  the  best. 

The  object  of  the  botanist  is  to  make  a  perfect  natural 
classification  of  plants — i.  e.,  a  classification  which  shall  ex 
press  perfectly  the  natural  affinities  or  degrees  of  kinship, 
or  order  of  evolution  of  all  plants.  But,  on  the  one  hand, 
it  is  impossible  to  make  such  a  classification  without  ex 
haustive  knowledge  of  plants ;  on  the  other,  it  is  impossible 
to  begin  to  acquire  such  knowledge  without  a  previous 
classification.  How  did  the  botanist  emerge  from  this  di 
lemma  ?  He  made  first  an  artificial  classification.  Under 
the  light  and  guidance  of  this,  scientific  knowledge  became 
possible,  and  by  the  co-operation  of  an  army  of  workers  in 
every  part  of  the  world  it  was  steadily  accumulated.  In 
proportion  as  knowledge  of  true  relations  of  plants  increased 
a  natural  classification  based  on  these  became  possible  and 
gradually  displaced  the  artificial,  though  at  first  not  without 
some  resistance. 

Observe  now  the  difference  between  these  two  kinds  of 
classifications.  The  one  is  the  condition  of  rational  knowl 
edge,  and  the  agent  of  its  initiation,  and  the  other  is  the 
compendious  expression  of  rational  knowledge,  and  the  agent 
of  its  continuous  advance.  The  one  is  of  necessity  perfect, 
rigid,  made  at  once  out  of  hand,  as  all  artificial  things  are ; 
the  other  is  never  perfect,  but  ever  growing,  evolving,  as  all 
natural  things  do,  in  order  to  adapt  itself  to  an  ever-grow 
ing  knowledge,  until  finally  it  again  disappears  in  the  light 
of  a  perfect  knowledge  of  individuals  and  their  relations. 
Thus,  when  rational  knowledge  is  perfect,  like  that  of  God, 
then  classification  or  generalization  will  have  done  its  per 
fect  work  and  disappear.  Or,  to  put  it  in  another  way :  In 
artificial  classification  the  division  lines  between  classes  are 
sharp,  hard,  and  fast ;  in  natural  classification,  and  in  pro- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  381 

portion  as  it  is  natural,  classes  shade  into  each  other  more 
and  more  until  the  division  lines  disappear.  Thus,  the  hu 
man  mind  starting  from  animal  sense-perception  of  indi 
viduals  without  relations,  passes  through  classification,  and 
finally  reaches  perfect  rational  perception  of  individuals  and 
their  relations — from  chaos  through  artificial  order  to  ra 
tional  order. 

This  law  meets  us  in  every  department  of  thought  and  of 
human  activity.  It  meets  us,  therefore,  in  the  classification 
of  society.  The  relations  of  individuals  to  one  another  are 
so  numerous,  diverse,  and  complex  that  they  form  at  first  a 
bewildering  chaos.  Now,  man  is  put  here  in  this  world 
and  the  problem  given  him  to  solve  is  a  rational  classifica 
tion  or  organization  of  society.  But,  oil  the  one  hand,  such 
an  organization  is  impossible  without  a  complete  knowledge 
of  human  relations — i.  e.,  a  complete  sociology;  on  the 
other,  such  knowledge  is  impossible  without  a  previous  or 
ganization.  Therefore,  the  first  step  in  civilization  is  the 
classification  of  individuals  on  some  obvious  basis,  however 
artificial  and  arbitrary,  as  the  very  condition  of  civilization 
and  of  rational  knowledge.  Any  classification  is  better 
than  none.  It  may  be  based  on  conquest,  or  on  race,  or  on 
wealth,  or  on  family,  or  on  pursuit  in  life,  or  on  any  other 
obvious  distinction.  Then,  with  the  advance  of  science  or 
rational  knowledge  this  classification  must  be  modified  and 
made  more  and  more  rational.  In  the  ideal  society,  when 
sociology  is  complete  and  the  moral  nature  of  man  perfect, 
when  rational  knowledge  of  human  relations  and  the  will 
to  act  in  accordance  with  these  relations  is  perfect,  then  I 
suppose  classes  of  society,  as  we  now  know  them,  will  have 
served  their  purpose  and  disappear.  In  other  words,  every 
man's  position  in  the  estimation  of  his  fellow-men  will  be 
determined  wholly  by  his  real  worth  in  every  way,  but  espe 
cially  his  intellectual  and  moral  worth.  The  non-recogni 
tion  of  this  law  is  the  cause  of  all  revolutions. 

Now,  this  law  applies,  of  course,  to  the  classes  or  castes  of 
society  as  they  exist  to-day,  and  is  their  sufficient  justifica 
tion.  In  early  stages  of  society  these  are  arbitrary,  artificial, 
rigid,  separated  by  hard  and  fast  lines  impossible  to  over 
pass.  In  so  far  as  they  are  so,  they  are  unnatural  and  oppress 
ive.  But  they  were  thoroughly  recognized  and  regarded  as 
inevitable,  and  society  was  therefore  comparatively  peaceful. 
They  are  now  becoming  less  and  less  rigid,  less  and  less 
impassable,  especially  in  this  country ;  but  also  their  artifi- 


382  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ciality,  their  irrationality,  and  therefore  injustice,  are  more 
and  more  recognized,  and  therefore  society  is  becoming 
more  and  more  restive.  The  time  has  come  when  classes 
of  society  must  on  the  one  hand  be  put  on  a  more  rational 
basis,  and  on  the  other  must  be  recognized  as*a  necessary 
condition  of  civilization. 

Now,  race-classes  not  only  come  under  the  same  head, 
but  are  more  natural  and  rational  than  many  others,  be 
cause  founded  on  a  real  natural  difference — i.  e.,  a  difference 
in  the  grade  of  evolution ;  and,  moreover,  where  the  differ 
ence  is  as  great  as  it  is  between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
Negro,  the  class-distinction  seems  absolutely  necessary,  at 
least  for  the  present.  This  class-distinction,  therefore,  is 
peculiar,  in  that  it  is  more  rational  than  others  in  so  far  as 
it  is  more  natural,  but  less  rational  in  so  far  as  the  separat 
ing  line  (race-line)  is  more  rigid  and  impassable,  and  par 
takes  of  the  nature  of  caste.  This  natural  caste-line  can 
not  be  broken  down,  and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  ought  not,  until 
we  understand  better  than  we  now  do  the  laws  of  the  effects 
of  race-mixture.  If  the  effects  of  the  mixture  of  the  ex 
treme  primary  races  be  bad,  not  only  immediately,  but  for 
all  time  and  under  any  mode  of  regulation,  then  the  law  of 
organic  evolution,  the  law  of  destruction  of  the  lower  races 
and  the  survival  of  only  the  higher,  must  prevail  and  the 
race-line  must  never  be  broken  over.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
mixture  of  the  extreme  primary  races  can  in  any  way  and 
by  any  rational  mode  of  regulation  be  made  to  elevate  the 
human  race,  then  the  race-line  must  and  ought  to  be  broken 
down  and  complete  mixture  must  eventually  take  place. 
We  are  not  yet  prepared  to  speak  confidently  on  this  subject. 

Meanwhile,  the  exercise  of  mutual  forbearance  and  kind 
ness — in  other  words,  of  a  true  rational  spirit — will  do 
much  even  to  mitigate  or  even  to  remove  entirely  the  evils 
of  the  race-line.  We  must  wait  and  let  the  problem  solve 
itself.  If  only  the  spiritual  brotherhood  be  realized,  it  will 
matter  little  if  the  physical  distinction  remain. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  383 


ABSTRACT  OF  THE   DISCUSSION. 

MR.  JAMES  A.  SKILTON: 

I  was  extremely  fortunate  in  having  the  privilege  of  opening  the 
discussion  of  the  paper  read  by  Prof.  Mason  on  the  Land  Problem, 
and  am  not  less  so  in  having  the  privilege  of  opening  the  discussion  of 
the  thoroughly  scientific  and  very  valuable  paper  read  this  evening  by 
the  distinguished  president  of  the  American  Society  for  the  Advance 
ment  of  Science. 

Prof.  Le  Conte  has  treated  the  subject  not  pnly  from  the  scientific 
and  evolutionary  point  of  view,  but  also  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
sincere  and  thoughtful  man  of  Southern  birth  and  experience.  It  has 
been  my  fortune,  however,  to  have  approached  the  subject  from  the 
opposite  point  of  view  of  Northern  birth  and  experience,  supple 
mented  by  an  extended  and  unique  experience  in  the  same  Southern 
State,  in  the  "  black  belt,"  and  practically  in  the  locality  of  Prof.  Le 
Conte's  birth  and  early  life,  where  before  the  war  I  took  an  organized 
force  of  white  laborers  and  had  the  immediate  control  at  different 
times  of  free  white  labor  and  slave  labor,  with  abundant  opportunity 
for  instructive  study  and  comparison.  In  so  far  as  I  was  capable,  I 
then,  and  have  since,  applied  to  the  study  of  the  subject  scientific  and 
evolutionary  principles,  and,  as  for  my  own  candor  and  sincerity,  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  these  may  be  considered  as  necessarily  implied  in 
the  application  of  such  principles. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  begin  to  study  Southern  conditions  on  the  spot 
in  December,  1852,  and  to  approach  the  subject  with  caution,  followed 
by  years  of  deliberation,  only  to  reach  the  broader  conclusions  I  shall 
present  to  you  under  the  illuminating  processes  and  effects  of  growing 
secession  and  war  and  what  has  since  developed  from  them.  When 
every  man  of  my  white  force  was  struck  down  with  malarial  fever  and 
I  was  left  alone  and  unaided  to  take  care  of  my  house,  stock,  and 
crops,  I  began  to  feel  that  my  tuition  in  Southern  conditions  was  com 
mencing  in  earnest ;  and  when  forced  to  hire  slaves  to  take  their 
places  or  quit,  I  faced  the  situation,  hired  the  slaves,  and  in  due  time 
got  my  practical  experience  on  the  slave-labor  side  as  I  had  before 
done  on  the  free-labor  side,  both  in  a  Southern  locality.  Furthermore, 
with  the  slaves  employed  to  take  the  places  of  white  men  disabled  by 
malarial  fevers,  I  not  only  came  into  direct  contact  as  master  by  hire, 
but,  being  recognized  by  them  as  coming  from  the  land  of  freedom,  had 


384  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

to  an  unusual  degree  their  confidence  and  trust  in  general,  and  fre 
quently  as  to  the  deeper  experiences  of  their  personal  and  family 
lives. 

It  is  usually  very  instructive,  after  having  been  put  through  a  hard 
curriculum  and  learned  your  lesson,  to  watch  others — those  of  differ 
ent  types,  origins,  and  capacities — while  they  are  being  put  through 
the  same  curriculum.  This  advantage  I  had  in  scores  if  not  in  hun 
dreds  of  instances  where  the  iiew  scholars  were  Northern  men  or  for 
eigners,  newer  or  later  comers  in  the  South  than  myself,  and  thus  have 
been  able  to  review,  reconsider,  or  verify  my  own  observations  and  con 
clusions  times  without  number. 

Let  me  claim,  then,  that  what  I  have  to  say  is  not  presented  as  the 
view  of  a  man  of  Northern  birth  who  has  recently  begun  the  study  of 
the  subject,  and,  fresh  from  his  first  excursion,  attempts  to  solve  the 
Southern  problem  through  the  opportunities  of  a  week's  travel  and  of 
glimpses  caught  through  the  windows  of  a  railroad  car  or  of  lessons 
learned  in  conversation  with  casual  fellow-travelers.  Having  lived 
there  and  engaged  in  business,  become  a  citizen,  a  voter,  and  subjected 
myself  to  all  the  influences  of  the  Southern  environment,  I  certainly 
have  had  the  opportunity  of  obtaining  an  insight  deeper  than  that  of 
a  transient  person  and  of  learning  to  understand  and  sympathize  with 
the  Southerner  in  the  stupendous  difficulties  of  his  problem.  In  so 
doing  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say,  nevertheless,  that,  scientific  and  evo 
lutionary  principles  aiding  me,  1  have  never  found  myself  compelled 
to  sacrifice  the  broader  Northern  principles,  properly  so  called,  in 
which  I  was  born  and  bred ;  certainly  not  my  faith  in  freedom. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  the  usual  or  current  Northern  and  South 
ern  views  are  neither  of  them  sound  or  correct,  and  they  never  have 
been  so.  The  real  truth  consists,  and  always  has  consisted,  in  a  newer 
composite  view  that  takes  in  parts  of  each,  mainly  the  facts  of  the 
Southern  view  and  the  aspirations  and  hopes  of  the  Northern  view. 

I  have  dwelt  so  much  upon  preliminaries  because  many  years  of  ex 
perience  have  shown  me  the  futility  of  the  attempt  to  aid  people  to 
understand  the  real  South  unless  they  can  be  somehow,  at  least  tem 
porarily,  dislocated  from  contemplation  of  the  old  view  and  so  pre 
pared  to  consider  a  different  view. 

To  me,  then,  this  opportunity  is  so  unique  that  it  can  not  well  be  re 
peated.  I  shall  therefore  spend  no  time  on  direct  criticism  of  the 
paper  of  Prof.  Le  Conte  in  detail,  but.  hoping  to  equal  him  only  in 
candor  and  sincerity,  prefer  to  start  from  the  opposite  geographical 
point  of  the  compass,  and,  in  so  far  as  the  time  permits,  place  my 
own  thought  parallel  with  his  for  the  purposes  of  comparison  as  the 
method  most  likely  to  be  instructive  and  beneficial ;  for  then  in  those 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  385 

matters  in  which  there  is  agreement  there  will  be  re-enforcement,  and 
in  those  matters  in  which  there  is  disagreement,  if  any,  there  will  be 
opportunity  for  further  study  if  necessary. 

From  my  own  point  of  view  the  race  question  may  be  treated — in 
deed,  must  be  treated — as  a  continuation  or  extension  of  the  land  ques 
tion.*  Either  actually  or  by  implication  the  facts  of  the  race  question 
and  race  conditions  being  placed  alongside  of  or  correlated  with  those 
of  land  questions  and  conditions,  which  as  the  product  of  an  almost 
purely  selfish  commercial  policy  have  resulted  in  destroying  oppor 
tunity  for  proper  growth  and  development,  the  inference  will  be  either 
drawn  or  held  in  mind  that  the  very  existence  of  a  race  question  is 
due  to  the  mismanagement  or  misdirection  of  economic  forces,  and 
that  the  solution  of  the  question  can  only  be  found  in  a  change  of 
commercial  policy  dictated  by  rightly  managejl  and  directed  economic 
principles  and  forces ;  and  I  shall  further  proceed  on  the  larger  gen 
eralization  advanced  by  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  in  his  letter  read  at  the 
last  meeting,  to  the  effect  that  our  race  question  is  "  simply  the  prob 
lem  of  man,"  and  no  mere  negro  question  or  Afro  or  Afric-American 
question. 

But  here  let  me  dispose  of  one  branch  of  the  topic  in  a  word.  If  the 
system  of  land  barbarization,  which  beyond  question  has  located  the 
negro  where  he  is  and  to  some  extent  made  him  what  we  find  him 
there,  is  to  continue,  then  for  me  the  race  question  is  already  settled — 
I  do  not  wish  to  see  the  white  man  enter  a  contest  the  goal  of  which 
is  permanent  barbarism.  By  all  means  let  the  most  barbarous  or  the 
least  civilized  race  capture  and  possess  that  goal  without  contest  on 
the  part  of  the  race  to  which  I  belong,  if  natural  or  climatic  law,  the 
laws  of  commerce  or  society,  present  no  alternative. 

The  really  difficult  parts  of  the  race  problem  are  chiefly  due  to  hal 
lucinations  or  misinformations.  When  these  are  disposed  of  it  may 
be  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  any  race  problem  remains.  When  we 
get  below  them  and  among  the  real  facts  of  the  case,  we  find  that  the 
negro  is  as  much  the  product  of  evolution  as  any  other  race,  that  he 
belongs  by  nature  and  by  history  to  the  hotter  and  necessarily  more 
backward  regions  of  the  world,  to  and  in  which  he  is  constitutionally 
suited  and  the  white  race  totally  unsuited.  Indeed,  these  facts  show 
that  while  the  blacks  may  not  have  the  qualities  required  to  civilize 
the  temperate  zones,  the  whites  have  shown  no  capacity  for  civilizing 
the  tropics,  and  that  the  two  races  are  therefore  quits.  Seemingly,  we 
would  prefer  to  take  the  negro  out  of  his  natural  domain,  in  violation 
of  evolutionary  law  and  result,  and  force  him  to  adapt  himself  to  a  new 
habitat  instead  of  building  on  what  has  been  done  by  Nature  in  the 

*  See  The  Land  Problem,  pp.  Ill  and  131. 


386  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

past  and  helping  to  civilize  his  habitat  and  thereby  the  man  and  the  race. 
If  the  white  race  would  first  really  develop  the  fit  civilization  of  its  own 
habitat  by  following  the  true  lines  of  sociological  growth,  it  would 
then  be  in  a  position  to  assist  the  negro  to  do  the  same  thing  where  he 
belongs,  each  thus  aiding  and  neither  hindering  the  other.  Looking  at 
the  matter  in  this  way,  we  may  see  that  our  duty  is  to  build  on  the  negro 
as  he  is  rather  than  to  attempt  to  reconstruct  him  on  the  plan  of  the  white 
man.  It  is  certain  that  the  negro  is  in  the  world  for  a  purpose,  with  a 
fitness  at  least  to  accomplish  beneficent  ends,  if  we  can  manage  to  un 
derstand,  respect  and  aid  in  the  application  of  the  necessary  means  to  ac 
complish  those  ends.  And  when  we  look  him  over  and  over  and  through 
and  through,  glancing  our  eyes  between  times  at  the  conditions  and  pos 
sibilities  of  the  hotter  regions  of  the  world  to  which  he  belongs,  we  will, 
if  sufficiently  clear-sighted,  begin  to  suspect  that  about  the  worst  use  we 
could  put  him  to  would  be  to  make  him  over  on  the  white  man's  pattern ; 
unless  it  be  the  substitution  of  a  mongrel  race  in  the  place  of  the  two  races. 

There  is  one  almost  universal  hallucination  lying  here  at  the  thresh 
old  and  requiring  removal  before  we  can  even  properly  enter  upon 
discussion.  In  the  first  place,  slavery  was  essentially  a  condition.  It 
never  was  essentially  an  institution.  It  has  been  our  great  mistake 
that  we  have  treated  it  as  such,  and  only  as  such.  It  was  a  growth — 
in  fact,  an  evolutionary  growth.  And  as  a  condition  it  never  was 
destroyed,  never  can  be  destroyed,  either  by  a  proclamation  of  emanci 
pation,  by  a  mere  constitutional  amendment,  or  by  any  other  mere 
institutional  means  or  method.  Without  going  into  an  explanation 
of  these  statements,  it  is  sufficient  to  quote  the  words  of  the  master : 

"  No  one  can  be  perfectly  free  till  all  are  free ;  no  one  can  be  perfectly 
moral  till  all  are  moral ;  no  one  can  be  perfectly  happy  till  all  are  happy." 

In  other  words,  freedom,  morality,  and  happiness  must  be  universal 
or  they  can  not  exist.  They  must  be  the  product  of  a  universal  con 
dition — a  condition  in  which  the  unity  is  created  out  of  diversity  by 
growth,  by  evolution. 

While  the  ex-slaves  of  the  South  have  since  emancipation,  so  called, 
come  into  a  time  when  they  can  claim  political  freedom  and  point  to 
the  fundamental  law  in  support  of  that  claim,  they  still  remain  under 
the  dominion  of  the  same  economic  and  industrial  law  and  condition 
in  and  by  which  they  were  originally  made  slaves,  and  can  never  be 
come  in  fact  free  men — without  something  more  than  mere  institu 
tional  change.  Having  no  genuine  economic  freedom,  they  can  have 
no  real  political  or  social  freedom. 

There  is  another  point  that  needs  clearing  up  to  the  Northern  mind. 
Under  slavery  the  slave  was  in  essential  particulars  the  pet  of  the  sys 
tem.  His  white  master,  the  master's  wife,  and  their  children  looked 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  387 

after  him  with  the  most  earnest  and  incessant  care  ;  not  only  did  the 
lady  of  the  plantation  personally  attend  and  nurse  him  when  sick,  but 
when  he  was  assaulted  the  slave  had  his  master  for  a  protector ;  and  I 
have  myself  seen  an  avenging  master  pursuing  the  white  murderer  of 
his  slave,  pistol  in  hand,  with  the  same  terrible  expression  on  his  face 
that  he  might  have  had  if  his  son  instead  of  his  slave  had  been  the 
victim  of  attack.  In  slavery,  therefore,  the  position  of  the  slave  was 
in  essential  respects  ostensibly  better  than  that  of  the  poor  white  who 
lived  on  his  little  clearing  near  by,  and  had  no  protector  or  avenger 
but  himself.  For  the  slave  was  assisted  by  his  master  in  his  struggle 
for  survival  and  elevation  in  the  scale  of  life.  So  far  as  this  is  con 
cerned,  therefore,  emancipation  threw  the  slave  back  on  to  the  same 
level  with  the  poor  white,  leaving  him  only  the  aid  of  the  past  benefits 
and  protection  of  slavery  to  give  him  help  in,  the  battle  of  the  future, 
certain  to  be  of  doubtful  value. 

And,  fruitful  as  this  age  has  been  in  opera  bouffe,  it  is  doubtful  if 
any  production  in  that  line  equals  the  performance  of  the  abolitionists 
when,  immediately  after  the  war,  they  assembled  in  solemn  council, 
disbanded  their  abolition  societies,  delivered  their  orations  of  self- 
praise,  and  marched  off  from  the  battle-field  with  drums  beating  and 
banners  flaunting  the  air,  at  the  very  moment  when  the  results  of  the 
war  furnished  them  the  opportunity  to  begin  the  battle  for  freedom 
as  a  condition  in  the  South.  No  history  of  the  past  and  no  working 
scheme  for  the  elevation  of  the  negro  in  the  future  can  miss  or  ignore 
the  deep  significance  of  this  point  and  be  of  any  value  whatever. 
Practically  the  abolitionists  treated  freedom  as  well  as  slavery  as  insti 
tutional  in  character  and  origin ;  they  understood  neither  the  ultimate 
cause  nor  the  cure  of  slavery,  but  left  the  matter  of  its  abolishment  in 
such  confusion  that  we  may  credit  them  with  the  creation  of  the  prob 
lem  we  are  discussing,  and  for  which  no  clear  solution  of  their  sugges 
tion  yet  appears  after  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  further 
study  and  experience.  In  fact,  the  negro  was  practically  abandoned  by 
his  so-called  friends  and  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  his  so-called 
enemies  and  former  masters ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  masters  had 
insisted  that  they  could  frame  no  theory  or  system  according  to  which 
the  industries  of  the  South  could  be  conducted  on  the  basis  of  freedom, 
both  the  abolitionists  and  others  at  the  North  abandoned  the  negro, 
substantially,  to  his  own  devices,  after  giving  him  the  franchise  as  the 
sole  and  sufficient  panacea  for  all  his  ills  past  and  to  come. 

The  point  I  make  is  that,  like  the  slave-holders,  the  abolitionists  had 
no  practical  and  just  solution  to  offer,  and  that  they  ran  awav  and 
turned  the  problem  over  to  others,  while  claiming  credit  for  a  solution 
that  was  no  solution.  Not  only  was  there  no  recognition  by  abolition- 


388  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ists  then  that  slavery  was  the  product  of  economic  action,  but,  as 
many  notable  examples  show,  the  economic  policy*  frequently,  if  not 
generally,  advocated  by  them  before  and  since  the  war  was  exactly 
that  which  took  away  "  opportunity,"  and  thereby  produced  slave  con 
ditions  in  the  one  case  and  actually  prevented  the  development  of  free 
conditions  in  the  other. 

The  dominant  Southern  idea  before,  during,  and  for  a  time  after  the 
war  was  that  under  emancipation  and  freedom  the  negro  would  cer 
tainly  perish.  Historical  facts  and  evolutionary  principles  coincide 
with  the  proposition  that  the  laborer  is  the  member  of  society  in  and 
through  whom  that  society  survives,  and  that  the  so-called  aristocrat 
is  the  man  who  perishes.  If,  therefore,  the  solution  of  the  race  prob 
lem  in  the  South  is  the  answer  to  the  question,  who  will  survive  and 
eventually  rule  the  region  now  occupied  by  the  negro,  mainly  in  the 
black  belt,  as  a  mere  race  contest  in  the  midst  of  unchanged  economic 
status  and  action  f  The  only  thing  left  to  be  said  is  that  the  negro 
will  unquestionably  survive  and  possess  the  land,  and  the  relative 
status  of  the  two  races  in  that  region  will  eventually  be  changed  in 
his  favor.  That  is  to  say,  if  the  industrial  and  economic  conditions 
that  have  caused  his  numerical  predominance  in  that  region  are  to 
continue,  he  as  their  fit  product  will  certainly  survive  and  win  ;  and 
with  him  an  ethical,  intellectual,  and  social  standard  of  a  co-ordinate 
character,  tempered  by  the  limited  and  inadequate  eleemosynary  aid 
of  his  Northern  friends,  will  also  win.  For,  as  these  friends  are  only 
now  beginning  to  discover,  they  have  labor  problems  at  home  at  the 

*  I  mean  the  free-trade  policy,  and  have  particularly  in  mind  my  friend 
and  pastor  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  his  immediate  followers.  Even  now  that 
he  is  dead,  I  believe  that,  unless  his  influence  in  this  direction  can  be  checked  and 
counteracted,  far  greater  injury  will  come  (not  only  to  the  ex-slave,  so  called, 
but  to  mankind)  than  of  service  from  his  life  and  work,  great  as  that  service 
seems  to  me  to  have  been.  I  do  not  undertake  to  decide  the  question,  but  only 
to  raise  it  for  consideration,  and  this  in  the  interest  of  his  future  fame  as  the 
ages  come  and  go. 

The  history  of  the  nomenclature  of  abolition,  itself  and  alone,  sustains,  if  it 
does  not  establish,  my  view.  Primarily  and  derivatively  abolition  is  abolescence, 
or  growth  from  the  thing  abolished.  Webster  so  derives  and  defines  the  word. 
But  The  Century  Dictionary  distinctly  shows  the  influence  and  effect  of  aboli 
tionist  philosophy  and  action  during  the  past  fifty  years,  in  the  all  but  complete 
elimination  of  the  idea  of  growth  from  the  current  definition  of  the  word,  and 
the  substitution  of  ideas  purely  mechanical  and  artificial  in  its  place. 

The  favorite  word  emancipation,  defining  the  abolitionist  achievement,  com 
pletes  the  demonstration.  Whether  the  release  be  from  the  hand  of  purchase  or 
from  that  of  capture,  the  expression  is  entirely  and  carefully  mechanical,  and  it 
follows  the  hard,  unyielding  Roman  law  out  of  which  the  stiff,  wooden  system  of 
our  present  social  structure  has  been  largely  built,  and  into  which  it  is  one  of  our 
objects  to  somehow  breathe  the  breath  of  something  like  life  and  growth.  Abo 
litionism  has,  therefore,  not  only  failed  to  apply  the  necessary  evolutionary  prin 
ciples  of  growth  to  the  solution  of  the  slavery  and  race  problems,  but,  in  addition 
to  debasing  our  political  methods  to  the  level  of  the  inorganic,  has  done  the  same 
thing  for  the  English  language  and  the  nomenclature  of  the  subject,  and  even 
for  its  very  name.  In  other  words,  abolitionism  has  betrayed  the  fundamental 
principle  of  its  propaganda  as  expressed  in  the  title  it  so  proudly  wears.  And  as 
to  method,  it  set  the  bad  example  which  other  reforms  are  now  fatally  following 
because  of.  its  supposed  success. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  389 

North  to  solve,  for  which  no  solution  yet  appears,  that  must  tax 
Northern  resources  to  the  verge  of  failure  at  least.  That  region  will 
then  become  substantially  only  a  possibly  better  Africa,  with  which 
American  statesmanship  must  deal  on  that  comparatively  low  level ; 
for  the  Southern  poor  white,  although  always  free  politically,  has 
not  been  able  to  rise  above  and  out  of  the  characteristic  Southern 
status.  Nor  will  the  man  of  the  inferior  race  be  able  to  do  so,  as  we 
must  conclude  when  we  consider  the  lesser  opportunities  he  has  had 
here  and  elsewhere  for  ages  past. 

The  significant  fact  mentioned  by  Prof.  Le  Conte  as  to  the  want  of 
return  to  him,  ever  since  emancipation,  from  lands  that  had  supported 
his  ancestors  and  their  slaves  for  generations,  shows  at  least  a  tend 
ency  toward  the  disappearance  of  the  white  man  and  his  civilization 
from  the  black  belt  first  of  all. 

But  does  that  portion  of  the  United  States  ultimately  belong  to 
the  negro  through  ethnological,  climatic,  economic,  and  industrial,  or, 
in  other  words,  through  ultimate  evolutionary  title  deeds  ?  That  ter 
ritory  was  not  his  original  habitat ;  he  was  dragged  into  it  by  the 
force  of  barbarous  economic  principles  and  practice.  In  climate  and 
in  almost  every  other  respect  it  is  unlike  any  other  habitat  in  which 
unmodified  evolutionary  law  and  development  have  located  him.  His 
African  home  lies  between  the  isothermal  lines  of  68°  F.  The  black 
belt  lies  entirely  above  and  outside  of  that  line  and  in  the  climatic 
home  of  the  white  race.  That  region  belongs  climatically  either  to 
the  white  man  or  to  one  of  the  other  races ;  primarily  to  the  red  race, 
whose  problem  is  being  rapidly  decided  by  extinction,  somewhat  on 
the  theory  of  General  Sherman — that  the  only  good  Indian  is  a  dead 
Indian.  And  in  so  far  as  the  red  man  had  prior  title,  the  white  man 
is  his  natural  heir  and  successor,  and  not  the  black  man,  notwithstand 
ing  the  white  man,  like  the  black  man,  belongs  to  an  imported  race. 
As  to  the  future  and  the  right  of  the  negro  to  continue  in  dominant 
occupancy  of  the  South,  or  any  part  of  it,  as  before  intimated,  it  de 
pends,  I  may  say,  entirely  on  the  highest  ideal  status  of  civilization 
possible  of  achievement  in  that  region. 

As  for  myself,  that  question  was  experimented  with  and  decided 
on  the  spot  in  favor  of  the  white  man  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  and 
the  development  of  evolutionary  science  and  philosophy  within  that 
time  has  furnished  a  succession  of  confirmations  of  the  conclusion. 
After  myself  working  in  the  field  with  white  men,  and  also  with  slaves, 
I  am  prepared  to  say  that  the  only  seemingly  natural  and  important 
obstruction  or  hindrance  to  the  occupation  of  that  country  and  to  the 
performance  of  the  necessary  labor  everywhere  for  its  development  by 
the  white  man,  is,  not  high  temperature,  but  the  presence  in  many  lo- 


390  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

calities  of  malaria,  to  which  the  white  man  is  only  less  resistant  *  than 
the  black  man.  And  it  is  both  a  scientific  and  a  historical  fact  that 
the  malaria  is  the  direct  product  of  a  barbarous  economic  system 
which  produces  the  land  barbarization,  and  slavery,  of  which  it  is  a 
symptom.  It  has  not  always  been  dominant  there  in  the  past,  and 
therefore  may  not  continue  to  be  dominant  in  the  future,  under  a  dif 
ferent  system.  It  has  increased  co-ordinately  with  slavery. 

Does  it  seem  possible  or  probable  that  a  region  of  country  located  so 
near  elevated  regions  manifestly  the  natural  home  of  the  white  man,  and 
the  white  man  of  civilization,  can  belong  scientifically  and  naturally,  in 
this  age,  to  the  black  man.  as  its  dominant  occupier  and  exploiter  1 

What  then  is  to  be  said  about  the  physical  degeneracy  of  Confeder 
ate  soldiers  of  those  regions  who  outmarched  and  outfought  Union 
soldiers  so  frequently  during  the  war! 

What  about  the  lecturer  of  the  evening,  president  of  the  leading 
scientific  association  of  America,  a  leader  in  evolutionary  study  and 
thought,  indeed,  in  important  departments  the  leader,  in  America, 
and  known  to  be  such  throughout  Europe ;  and,  besides,  a  long  list  of 
distinguished  names  of  several  generations  in  the  same  family  ?  This, 
too,  not  an  isolated,  exceptional  instance.  Liberty  County,  Georgia, 
where  he  was  born  and  bred,  was,  many  generations  since,  settled  by 
people  from  New  England,  who  started  from  good  old  Dorchester, 
Mass.,  as  did  the  first  settlers  of  Windsor  and  Hartford,  Conn.,  re-en 
forced  by  a  strong  contingent  of  Huguenot  blood.  I  venture  to  say 
that  no  purely  agricultural  county  in  the  United  States  has  produced 
a  greater  number  of  distinguished  men  than  that  county.  Early  in 
the  fifties  I  became  acquainted  with  a  number  of  its  inhabitants,  saw 
many  more,  and  learned  their  history.  Liberty  County  touches  salt 
water  between  the  Savannah  and  Altamaha  Rivers.  It  is  marked  on 
the  map  as  black  as  the  blackest  in  the  black  belt,  its  oldest  town  Dor 
chester.  As  I  saw  and  knew  them,  they  were  large,  finely  built,  red- 
cheeked,  masterful  men — more  like  the  original  type  of  New  England 
settler  than  any  other  men  I  ever  saw,  even  in  New  England. 

Of  course  the  uneducated  mind  accepts  what  is  as  what  must  be ; 
but  the  mind  imbued  with  evolutionary  ideas  recognizes  it  as  a  funda 
mental  principle  that  what  now  is  can  not  continue  to  be  ;  for,  unless 
progress  is  made,  decline  is  inevitable.  The  causes  which  have  bar 
barized  land  and  the  people  living  on  it  continuing,  through  increased 
soil  exhaustion,  deeper  barbarism  is  certain  to  be  reached. 

*  The  negro's  power  of  resisting  malaria  seems  to  have  declined  in  his  new 
home  in  the  South.  I  found  the  chief  difference  between  the  two  races  in  the 
matter  of  resisting  malarial  poisons  to  be  that  whereas  the  white  man  could 
neither  work  nor  eat,  the  negro  could  eat  but  not  work.  And  in  this  fact,  also, 
we  may  find  a  hint  as  to  survival  and  eventual  lapse  into  savagery  and  wilder 
ness  if  the  conditions  continue. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  391 

There  was  a  time  in  the  early  history  of  the  black  belt — in  its 
eastern  part — before  land  barbarization  had  done  its  work  and  the 
slave  system  had  been  deveteped,  when  malaria  did  not  prevail,  and  it 
is  only  a  question  of  a  possible  civilized  and  civilizing  method  of 
treating  the  soil  as  the  result  of  which  malaria  may  be  eliminated. 
When  that  method  is  adopted,  the  atmospheric  temperature  of  the 
country  will  be  found  not  unsuitable  or  deleterious  to  the  white 
laborer,  and  the  superior  value  of  the  Southern  products  will  give  the 
white  man  a  much  greater  return  for  the  same  labor,  as  compared 
with  the  grain-producing  regions  of  the  North.  When  to  the  opportu 
nities  of  the  field  are  added  those  of  the  factory,  and  the  manufacture 
of  cotton  in  or  near  the  place  of  its  production,  an  enormous  increase 
of  white  population  will  certainly  take  place ;  and  rich  as  the  region  is 
in  deposits  of  phosphates  and  other  marine  products,  capable  as  it  is  of 
producing  enormous  crops  of  vegetable  food  suitable  only  for  con 
sumption  near  its  place  of  production,  and  fit  to  give  the  white  man 
physical  strength  and  intellectual  force,  it  certainly  may  be  expected 
that,  even  with  no  removal  of  the  negro  as  a  race,  the  country  will  be 
come  possessed  by  the  white  man  in  such  force  and  numbers  as  to  place 
the  negro  in  the  same  relative  position  that  he  occupies  at  the  North. 
This  will  keep  the  political  and  social  power  of  those  regions  in  the 
hands  of  the  race  occupying  the  Eastern,  Middle,  Western,  and  Pacific 
States — one  and  homogeneous,  and  settle  the  race  question  in  the 
South  as  it  has  done  elsewhere. 

Under  the  exigencies  of  the  war,  mechanics  were  in  great  demand 
in  the  South,  and  the  "  black  belt,"  even,  became  dotted  with  develop 
ing  manufacturing  enterprises  which  continued  to  flourish  down  to 
Appomattox  day,  and  under  a  proper  system  there  is  no  reason  why 
they  should  not  be  revived  and  become  permanent. 

It  will  be  impossible  on  this  occasion  to  even  catalogue  the  forces 
and  principles  that  will  support  that  movement  in  civilizing  this 
region  when  once  the  corner  is  turned.  The  story  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden  does  not  furnish  the  principal  evidence  that  through  degrada 
tion  man  and  vegetation  suffer  together,  while  thorns  and  thistles 
flourish.  Science  teaches  the  same  lesson.  The  history  of  the  South 
confirms  it.  The  barbarization  of  the  land  and  its  people  is  found  to 
be  both  coincident  and  co-ordinate  with  the  deterioration  of  the  fiber 
of  the  cotton  in  length,  quality,  and  value,  as  the  strength  of  the  soil 
diminishes.  When  the  system  is  changed  and  soil  enrichment  takes 
the  place  of  soil  impoverishment,  exactly  the  opposite  will  occur,  the 
staple  will  be  increased  in  length  of  fiber,  improved  in  quality  and 
quantity,  other  kinds  of  plant  life  will  also  thrive  and  improve,  and, 
step  by  step,  the  problems  of  man,  society,  and  the  state  will  be  co- 


392  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ordinately  and  coincidently  advanced  and  solved.  No  such  develop 
ment,  however,  can  occur  except  with  and  through  an  entire  abandon 
ment  of  the  old  system  and  an  increase  of  common  interest  and  com 
mercial  relations  between  the  farms  and  shops  of  the  North  and  the 
farms  and  shops  of  the  South,  and  also  between  the  cities  of  the  North 
and  the  cities  of  the  South ;  in  fact,  between  the  two  hitherto  diverse 
and  antagonistic  civilizations.  The  result  of  this  diversity — which 
includes  diversity  of  interests — has  been  war  in  the  past  and  will  in 
evitably  be  war  in  the  future,  in  one  form  or  another,  unless  a  law  of 
harmony  is  discovered  and  put  in  practice.  A  result  of  proper  in 
creased  commercial  exchange  between  the  North  and  the  South  would 
be  a  tendency  to  check  soil  exhaustion,  effect  soil  enrichment  in  both 
regions,  and  bring  about  unity  of  interests.  But  a  most  important 
and  further  effect  of  a  dominant  white  civilization,  not  only  in  the 
upland  region  of  the  South  but  also  in  the  cotton  and  lowland  region, 
must  be  the  development  of  increased  commercial  interchange  between 
the  people  of  these  regions  and  the  adjacent  peoples  of  the  West 
Indian,  Mexican,  Central  American,  and  South  American  regions,  the 
more  accessible  and  near-by  portions,  of  course,  having  the  advantage, 
other  things  being  equal.  One  of  our  statesmen  said,  during  the  San 
Domingo  debate,  that  republics  should  "  beware  of  the  tropics,"  refer 
ring  evidently  to  the  effects  of  the  overmastering  power  of  vegetal 
growth  in  preventing  or  checking  the  development  of  man  and  society. 
Evolutionary  economics  clearly  points  to  the  gradual  movement  to 
ward  equilibration  of  agricultural  wealth  between  the  lands  of  the 
tropic  and  the  temperate  zones  as  the  means  of  benefiting  the  peoples 
of  both,  and  therefore  to  the  true  basis  for  a  scientific  commercial 
system  not  only  for  America  but  for  the  world.  Such  commercial  re 
lations  will  inevitably  be  beneficial  to  the  West  Indies,  and  must  lead 
to  the  ending  of  European  domination  therein,  to  more  and  more 
affiliation  with  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  eventually  to  the 
furnishing  of  a  market  and  opportunity  for  the  free  black  labor  of  the 
South  to  emigrate  to  the  West  India  Islands,  there  to  find  increased 
reward  and  a  more  natural  climate,  through  the  increased  demand  in 
the  near-by  South  for  all  sorts  and  kinds  of  tropical  productions,  and 
a  counter-demand  in  those  islands  for  the  productions  of  all  parts  of 
the  United  States.  Under  this  condition  of  things  there  would  be  a 
tendency  and  movement  of  agricultural  products,  and  the  means  they 
furnish  for  the  enrichment  of  the  soil,  from  the  tropical  regions  of  the 
farther  south  to  the  Southern  portion  of  the  United  States  first,  and 
eventually  to  the  Northern  portion  of  the  United  States. 

The  history  of  Florida  and  its  renewed  relations  with  the  North 
and  its  people  since  1865  is  an  instructive  study  in  this  connection. 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  393 

In  1835  these  relations  were  cut  or  destroyed  by  the  ruin  of  the  orange 
groves  in  that  year,  the  effects  of  which  lasted  for  thirty  years.  As  the 
increased  crop  of  Florida  fruit  has  found  an  increasing  market  at  the 
North  since  1865-'66,  Northern  people  have  more  and  more  found 
occupation  and  homes  in  Florida,  largely  neglecting  the  intermediate 
regions  that  furnish  no  such  products.  The  same  principle  will  apply 
on  the  larger  scale,  including  the  West  India  Islands,  in  the  develop 
ment  of  dominant  commercial  movements  on  north  and  south  lines 
substantially  at  right  angles  to  those  of  dominant  commercial  move 
ment  under  the  present  system. 

This  would  develop  a  commerce  based  on  soil  enrichment  and 
higher  civilization  everywhere  in  the  United  States,  as  against  a  sys 
tem  of  commercial  interchange  based  on  soil  exhaustion  and  conse 
quent  barbarization,  as  now,  under  what  I  m,ay  call  the  English  sys 
tem,  although  it  has  become  the  system  of  the  world.  So  far  as  this 
country  is  concerned,  at  least,  that  system  insists  and  must  insist  on 
commercial  movements  on  east  and  west  lines,  whereby,  through  the 
continually  cheapening  cost  of  transportation,  our  agricultural  prod 
ucts  are  removed  forever  from  the  country  and  exchanged  for  Brum- 
magim  and  other  wares,  which,  however  they  may  be  disposed  of,  and 
whatever  may  be  their  value  otherwise,  certainly  can  not  do  much  in  the 
way  of  refertilizing  our  wheat  and  grain  fields  or  the  cotton  fields  of  the 
South.  Necessary  result,  the  destructive  competition  of  like  with  like. 

Our  fathers  started  out  to  establish  an  American  continental  sys 
tem  in  and  under  which  the  rights  of  all  men  should  be  respected. 
Their  children  have  been  in  the  main  content  to  undertake  and  con 
tinue  to  manage,  a  continent  on  parochial  principles,  and  these  in 
extricably  and  intentionally  confused  by  constant  and  universal  Euro 
pean  interference.  This  sufficiently  explains  the  failures  of  the  past 
and  the  hopes  and  possibilities  of  the  future. 

There  are  two  ways  of  stating  my  position  : 

1.  There  is  no  race  question  except  as  we  make  one  through  our 
failure  to  recognize  and  apply  the  scientific  principles  of  an  advancing 
civilization  in  their  land  and  ethnological  relations  and  implications, 
working  harmoniously  to  the  desired  end. 

2.  The  solution  of  the  race  question  is  to  be  found  by  giving  to  each 
race  its  own  fit  habitat  and  the  opportunities  belonging  to  each,  in 
which  each  race  will  help  others  without  antagonisms,  either  political 
or  social,  each  furnishing  a  market  for  the  products  of  the  other. 

Under  a  system  of  this  kind,  so  rich  in  possibilities  is  the  black-belt 
region  that  it  could  support  a  population  as  large  as  the  present  popu 
lation  of  the  United  States,  of  which  only  a  small  and  unobtrusive 
fraction  would  be  black,  while  the  West  Indies  and  Central  America 


394  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

would  fill  up  with  a  black  race  partly  composed  of  emigrants  from  the 
United  States  constantly  growing  in  civilization  through  the  necessary 
effects  of  "  opportunity "  furnished  by  a  near-by  market.  It  would 
matter  little  whether  the  two  races  worked  under  the  same  flag  or  not, 
so  long  as  they  worked  in  peace  and  prospered  through  the  results  of 
a  common  interest  in  a  commerce  scientifically  based  on  the  different 
natural  productions  of  different  soils,  climates,  and  regions.  Only  a 
continental  system  could  accomplish  such  results.  A  continental  sys 
tem  is  impossible  so  long  as  any  part  of  the  continent  or  of  the  adja 
cent  islands  is  occupied  and  held  under  European  dominion  and  gov 
erned  by  European  ideas,  North  or  South ;  and  here  we  reach  the  root 
of  the  whole  matter.  It  is  not  plain  piracy  and  plunder  now  as  for 
merly,  but  the  European  idea  is  that  America  must  be  held  in  a  com 
mercial  sense  tributary  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  European 
governments  in  governing  European  peoples  on  European  plans  and 
principles,  whatever  may  become  of  American  governments,  peoples, 
and  plans.  We  have  accepted  that  relation  not  only  as  to  commerce 
in  goods,  but  also  in  the  commerce  of  ideas,  which  they  supply  in  sup 
port  of  their  plans  and  principles  and  which  we  accept  and  adopt  al 
though  they  attack  and  overthrow  American  plans  and  principles. 
Not  so  was  it  with  the  fathers.  They  saw  the  need  if  not  the  oppor 
tunity  of  setting  up  an  independent  continental  system  and  elected  a 
Continental  Congress  to  begin  with.  When  their  descendants  have 
wisdom  enough  and  force  enough  to  complete  the  plans  of  the  fathers 
in  a  continental  system  with  which  Europe  is  not  allowed  to  injuri 
ously  interfere,  then  we  shall  find  solutions  not  only  for  race  problems, 
but  for  many  other  problems  that  are  now  not  much  less  vexing  and 
obscure.  When  that  day  comes  there  will  be  no  fine  questions  to  dis 
cuss  as  to  the  effects  of  the  mixing  of  races  and  race  contacts,  because 
there  will  be  a  common  and  universal  interest  in  keeping  the  races 
pure  and  unmixed  until  at  least  an  equal  culture,  wealth,  and  social 
status  shall  remove  the  natural  and  beneficent  race  prejudice — if  they 
ever  do.  Independent  race  improvement  for  each  in  its  own  natural 
habitat  may  then  proceed  in  an  orderly  and  peaceful  manner,  the  com 
bative  instincts  of  men  being  directed  to  the  subduing  or  at  least 
training  and  using  the  forces  of  Nature  as  the  true  policy  of  progress. 
Freedom  from  European  commercial  and  economic  interference  is 
the  most  important  factor  in  the  solution  of  this  as  of  many  other 
problems. 

If  Europe  and  European  methods  and  ideas  could  be  persuaded  or 
forced  to  let  go  their  deadly  grip  on  the  people  of  all  outlying  coun 
tries  of  the  world,  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  something  more 
than  a  destiny  of  destruction  might  be  found  for  the  so-called  lower 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  395 

races  of  other  types  without  intermixture  of  blood  or  absorption 
even. 

Necessarily,  in  the  presence  of  such  a  solution  the  political  and  as 
sociated  moral  difficulties  of  the  problem  would  largely  disappear. 

Here,  as  throughout,  the  key  to  the  situation  is  justice.  Justice  be 
tween  men,  and  justice — or  obedience  to  the  law  of  right — toward  land 
in  its  broadest  interpretation,  failing  which  the  land  has  its  own  slow 
but  sure  system  of  punishment  for  wrong-doers. 

But  injustice  to  land  and  to  the  negro  is  not  the  only  injustice  that 
has  had  to  do  with  the  creation  of  this  question.  There  is,  in  fact, 
another  question  of  race  or  part  of  a  race  still  more  obscure  than  the 
negro  race  question,  upon  which  the  solution  of  the  latter  absolutely 
depends.  In  spite  of  slavery  and  the  conditions  in  which  it  nourished, 
a  distinct  type  of  men  had  been  developed  there  which  naturally  affili 
ated  jvith  the  peoples  of  the  North  to  a  marked  degree  in  their  ideas 
and  aspirations  about  freedom,  union,  and  related  topics.  These  men 
doubted  the  beneficence  of  slavery  and  would  have  been  glad  to  join 
the  North  in  some  reasonable  plan  for  getting  rid  of  it.  Singularly 
enough,  no  discussions  note  or  explain  the  total  absence  of  this  one 
important  factor  in  the  solution.  In  nearly  all  the  seceding  States 
Union  men  were  in  the  majority  in  1860.  These  Union  men  were  not 
only  the  natural  allies  and  friends  of  the  Union  before  the  war,  but 
they  were  also  the  natural  leaders  of  reconstruction  and  the  natural 
friends,  teachers,  and  leaders  of  the  negro  in  his  induction  into  polit 
ical  opportunity  and  the  new  status.  They  seem  to  have  disappeared 
from  the  face  of  the  earth  as  effectually  as  the  ten  tribes  of  Israel,  all 
in  one  generation,  leaving  no  sign.  What  happened  to  them  and  what 
has  become  of  them  t  Having  clearly  seen  the  opportunity  they  were 
possibly  to  have  after  the  war,  as  early  as  the  fall  of  1860,  having  been 
one  of  them  myself,  having  been  an  observant  witness  of  the  deep 
damnation  of  their  taking  off,  and  having  done  my  best  to  prevent  it 
at  the  time,  there  is  a  certain  duty  of  explanation  laid  upon  me. 

In  some  minds  before  the  election,  and  in  many  within  forty-eight 
hours  after  it,  the  great  and  urgent  questions  were  :  If  we  have  sepa 
ration  in  peace,  what  will  be  the  status  and  fate  of  Union  men  ?  If 
secession  is  followed  by  war,  what?  Between  the  upper  and  nether 
mill-stones  of  the  contention,  how  are  we  and  our  rights  to  fare?  And 
when  it  is  all  over,  who  is  to  rule  in  these  Southern  States  and  who  is 
to  be  ruined,  the  Secessionist  or  the  Unionist,  especially  if  the  Union 
conquers?  Will  not  the  Government  ignore  us,  make  terms  with 
their  enemies  and  ours  after  the  war,  and  put  us  under  their  heels  for 
ever  ?  These  were  the  supreme  questions  to  the  Southern  Unionist. 
It  was  at  once  seen  by  myself  and  many  others  that  England,  repre- 
4 


396  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

senting  herself  and  foreign  interests  in  general,  would  probably  ex 
ercise  as  much  influence  in  settling  our  fate  and  that  of  the  negro  as 
either  the  Confederacy  or  the  United  States,  perhaps  more — and  more 
it  turned  out  to  be. 

International  law  and  the  laws  of  war  have  been  established  by  gov 
ernments  of  the  imperial  order  and  conform  to  their  interests  and 
principles ;  and  against  them  we  seem  to  have  no  courage  to  protest. 
In  that  system  whatever  the  king  does  every  one  of  his  subjects  con 
structively  does  and  may  be  held  responsible  for  accordingly  by  the 
king  of  the  nation  with  which  their  king  may  be  at  war.  But  American 
citizens  never  were  subjects  of  any  king.  They  were  and  are  sover 
eigns,  each  in  his  own  right.  How,  then,  could  any  man  or  combina 
tion  of  men,  minority  or  majority,  by  setting  up  a  State  or  Confederate 
government  in  rebellion  and  committing  treason  for  themselves,  also 
commit  treason  and  work  forfeiture  of  rights  of  any  kind — property, 
life,  franchise,  representation,  protection  of  every  kind — for  any  other 
citizen  and  sovereign,  and  especially  for  a  Union  citizen  who  opposed 
them  with  all  the  powers  the  Government  placed  in  his  hands,  and 
more  besides,  when  even  the  Government  itself  was  powerless  to  pre 
vent  rebellion  and  treason  by  any  means  at  its  command  f 

Starting  from  this  foundation  during  the  winter  of  1860-'61,  I  per 
sonally  originated  and  worked  out  a  plan  for  the  protection  of  the 
Southern  Unionist  and  to  enable  him  to  aid  the  United  States  in  put 
ting  down  rebellion,  preserving  the  State  autonomy  in  himself  and  his 
class,  taking  in  hand  the  management  of  the  States  in  reconstruction, 
and  generally  showing  the  South  how  to  enter  upon  the  new  civiliza 
tion  of  freedom,  peace,  and  Union  after  the  war.  It  included  a  plan 
to  enable  the  Government  to  separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats  when 
the  day  of  victory  and  judgment  should  come. 

My  plan  rested  upon  the  claim  that,  unless  forfeited  by  some  act  of 
the  individual,  the  right  of  representation  in  Congress  remained  to  the 
Union  man  of  the  South ;  that  no  rights  of  the  Unionist  could  be  for 
feited  by  residence  within  the  States  in  which  rebellious  citizens  had 
attempted  to  establish  a  new  State  government  or  a  new  general  gov 
ernment,  not  even  when  de  facto  successful  in  that  attempt ;  and  that 
the  property  of  Union  men  was  protected  by  the  Constitution  and 
could  not  be  confiscated  for  constructive  treason  even  when  running 
the  blockade  outward,  especially  if  done  in  obedience  to  a  proclama 
tion  of  the  President  calling  upon  Southern  citizens  to  withdraw  them 
selves  and  refrain  from  aiding  and  abetting  treason  and  rebellion. 
Two  months  or  more  were  spent  in  Washington  during  June,  July, 
and  August,  1861,  in  pressing  these  and  related  points  upon  the  atten 
tion  of  the  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial  departments  of  the  Gov- 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  397 

ernment.  Among  those  personally  approached  were  Mr.  Lincoln, 
Thad.  Stevens,  Judge  Wayne,  Senator  Ira  Harris,  of  New  York,  and 
Mr.  Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  the  latter  occupying  the  controlling  posi 
tion  of  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Elections  of  the  House.  The 
first  four  were  prompt  to  see  the  importance  of  the  suggestions  made, 
and  Mr.  Stevens,  then  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means, 
embodied  the  suggestion  to  put  a  tax  on  cotton,  intended  to  act  prac 
tically  like  an  export  duty,  which  was  subsequently  declared  uncon 
stitutional  after  some  seventy-five  millions  had  been  collected,  which 
still  remain  in  the  United  States  Treasury.  Mr.  Dawes  (looking  at  the 
matter  with  the  eyes  of  parochial  statesmanship)  saw  a  deep-laid  plot 
of  treason  in  giving  Southern  Unionists  their  right  of  representation 
even  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  South  divided  into  two  parties, 
one  for  and  the  other  against  the  Governmeivt,  and  used  his  influence 
on  the  floor  of  the  House  and  elsewhere  to  prevent  it. 

Others  besides  myself  were  urging  the  same  policy  for  similar  rea 
sons  ;  but  Union  representation  from  seceded  States  was  denied  and 
the  Union  elements  were  abandoned  to  their  fate,  many  of  them  to  be 
forced  to  co-operate  with  the  secession  elements,  however  unwillingly, 
thereby  practically  uniting  the  South  in  the  compact  body  which  re 
sisted  so  long  and  cost  so  much  to  conquer. 

The  fatal  influence  that  produced  this  result  was  that  of  the  Eng 
lish  Government,  with  its  watchful  eyes  on  the  blockade  and  South 
ern  trade  and  its  policy  of  embarrassment  in  order  to  make  the  re 
bellion  successful.  It  became  evident  that  if  Southern  Unionists  were 
represented  in  Congress,  British  ships  would  insist  on  entering  South 
ern  ports  in  order  to  trade  with  the  Southern  people,  on  the  theory 
that  under  a  de  facto  government  all  or  none  were  in  rebellion.  That 
is  to  say,  the  commercial  system  which  resulted  in  slavery  and  re 
bellion  through  soil  exhaustion  had  established  relations  that  made  or 
seemed  to  make  it  the  interest  of  England  to  destroy  the  Union  and 
the  Union  people  of  the  South.  The  same  relations  still  continue  and 
furnish  one  of  the  great  obstacles  to  the  solution  of  our  race  and  other 
problems. 

The  consequence  was  that,  in  spite  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
justice  and  without  voluntary  acts  of  treason  on  which  to  justify  the 
treatment,  the  United  States  in  all  its  departments — executive,  judi 
cial,  and  legislative — treated  its  friends,  the  Union  men  in  the  South, 
as  just  as  guilty  as  its  enemies,  emancipating  their  slaves  without 
compensation,  confiscating  their  property  as  that  of  public  enemies, 
taking  away  their  right  of  representation,  and  finally,  without  making 
the  slightest  distinction  between  friends  and  foes,  tendering  to  those 
who  had  never  committed  treason  an  amnesty  oath,  in  which  without 


398  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

charge,  trial,  jury,  or  benefit  of  clergy  even,  they  were  made  to  confess 
treason  and  surrender  all  political  rights  and  all  property  rights  over 
twenty  thousand  dollars  in  value,  as  the  sole  condition  and  only  means 
whereby  they  could  take  their  letters  from  the  post-office,  do  any  busi 
ness  whatever,  or  continue  to  live  in  the  South ;  and  this  amnesty  oath 
was  to  be  and  was  filed  in  the  State  Department  at  Washington,  there 
to  be  held  as  proof  in  all  coming  time  of  crime  against  the  Government, 
whether  any  such  crime  had  ever  been  committed  by  the  individual 
signing  it  or  not.  Even  discharged  soldiers  and  officers  of  the  Union 
army  who  helped  to  put  down  the  rebellion  and  had  the  proof  of 
wounds  on  their  bodies  and  of  their  discharges  in  their  pockets  were 
compelled  to  take  the  same  oath.  Indeed,  it  is  quite  possible,  I  believe 
certain,  that  the  Government  is  now  paying  pensions  to  men  whose 
amnesty  oaths  confessing  treason  are  at  this  moment  on  file  in  the 
State  Department.  Such  are  the  travesties  of  governmental  adminis 
tration  and  justice. 

This  was  the  treatment,  in  outline,  that  destroyed  Unionism  in  the 
South  and  deprived  the  emancipated  slave  of  his  natural  and  native 
friend,  and  also  the  Government  itself. 

I  was  one  of  ten  persons  summoned,  by  suggestion  from  Washington, 
to  meet  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  the  Republican  party  in  the  State 
of  Georgia  under  the  provisional  Governor  appointed  by  President 
Johnson — with  a  view  to  the  election  of  the  first  State  officers  and  a 
legislature.  We  had  one  meeting  and  adjourned  sine  die.  There  was 
no  other  course  to  pursue.  No  Republican  party  was  then  organized. 
The  secession  element,  after  slight  surprise  and  hesitation  and  finally 
amusement  over  the  preposterous  folly  of  the  Government  policy,  took 
the  amnesty  oath,  elected  their  sort  to  office,  and  started  in  at  once  to 
nullify  the  results  of  the  war.  Why  not  I 

At  this  point  Congress  stepped  in,  gave  the  negro  political  rights, 
the  secession  elements  retired,  the  Union  elements  existed  no  longer 
— had  been  destroyed  by  the  Government's  own  acts — and  the  only 
element  left  was  the  famous  carpet-bag  contingent,  the  fit  survival  of 
the  fittest  out  of  all  this  combined  burlesque  and  travesty  of  states 
manship. 

Under  such  auspices  as  these  did  the  solution  of  the  race  and  other 
Southern  problems  commence.  Should  we  wonder  at  the  results  we 
have  seen  and  now  see?  The  United  States  Government,  that  for 
which  the  North  was  and  is  responsible,  destroyed  first  the  Union,  and 
then  the  Disunion  party  of  the  South,  leaving  the  field  to  transients. 
The  carpet-bagger,  who  practically  did  all  the  work  of  restoration,  has 
been  blamed  for  all  the  blunders  and  crimes  of  the  period,  and  his  fate 
at  the  hands  of  the  historians  we  may  anticipate.  But  in  fact  he  is 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  399 

only  a  convenient  and  somewhat  amusing  scarecrow  in  the  Southern 
corn-field,  rigged  out  in  the  tattered  and  torn  mistakes  and  misfits  of 
both  sides  to  the  original  controversy.  Neither  side  knowing  what  to 
do  with  the  negro,  then  as  now,  and  not  offering  to  do  anything,  pretty 
much  all  the  fault  has  been  heaped  upon  him  for  doing  something,  all 
that  was  done,  the  best  he  knew  of  what  to  do.  His  answer  to  all  the 
charges  is  most  complete  and  sufficient.  Like  other  scarecrows,  of 
other  corn-fields,  he  has  been  found  capable  of  enduring  all  the  storms 
and  peltings  that  have  fallen  upon  him,  in  silence,  without  giving  any 
sign  of  any  attempt  at  self-defense.  This  tactics  on  his  part  is  sure  to 
tire  out  his  enemies  eventually ;  and  then  will  come  their  season  for 
self-investigation,  and  the  investigation  of  the  race  problem  on  its  own 
separate  and  independent  merits.  Not  forever  will  the  real  culprits, 
North  and  South,  be  able  to  unload  their  own  faults  and  crimes  upon 
the  back  of  the  wretched  carpet-bagger.* 

The  significant  fact  remains  as  a  perpetual  lesson,  that  whereas  be 
fore  the  war  the  whites  were  divided  into  two  political  parties,  one  of 
them  favoring  the  Union  and  frequently  in  the  majority,  there  is  now, 
as  the  result  of  the  insane  injustice  of  the  Government  itself,  practi 
cally  but  one  party,  which  no  "  force  bill "  and  no  standing  army  can 
ever  divide,  because  neither  of  them  can  touch  the  cause  of  that  unity, 
but  must  instead  substitute  aggravation  for  remedy.  A  necessary  pre 
liminary  to  the  solution  of  the  negro  race  question  in  the  South  is  the 
resurrection  of  the  Union  type  of  men  in  something  like  the  old  pro 
portions  by  the  sustained  development  of  an  economic  policy  that  will 
permit  such  men  to  live  and  prosper  there.  That  policy  is  the  neces 
sary  policy  of  a  higher  civilization  which  has  in  it  the  energy  to  meet 
and  overcome  the  policy  of  barbarization  in  the  struggle  for  survival. 

There  is  but  one  remedy — the  establishment  of  the  conditions  of 
freedom  and  race  co-operative  unity.  To  establish  these  the  United 
States  must  take  the  control  of  the  interests  of  its  own  people  at  the 

*  But  the  carpet-bagger  robbed  the  South,  they  say.  Well,  I  am  afraid  he  did. 
Doubtless  when  he  saw  shipwreck  ahead  he  grabbed  what  he  could  lay  hands  on 
and  got  ashore,  or  North,  the  best  way  he  could.  But  I  venture  to  say,  in  all 
seriousness,  and  out  of  abundant  opportunity  of  knowledge,  that  for  every  dollar 
he  stole  from  the  South,  the  South  stole  ten  from  him  at  least.  Prof.  Le  Conte 
mentions  the  quick  recuperation  of  the  South  after  the  war,  notwithstanding  the 
disorganization  of  labor.  Largely  the  money  of  the  carpet-bagger  did  it.  Money 
was  then  abundant.  Crowds  of  men  went  South  to  invest  it  and  help  rebuild  on 
the  new  foundations.  The  chances  are  that  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred 
dollars  of  that  money  was  permanently  invested  there,  and  that  the  remaining 
dollar  better  represents  what  the  carpet-bagger  managed  to  get  away  with.  Pub 
lic  clamor,  and  especially  political  public  clamor,  always  makes  such  "ducks 
and  drakes  "  of  truth  and  fact.  As  for  myself,  I  saw  the  thing  coming  and 
carpet-bagged  out  of  the  South  before  the  negro  regime  began,  impelled  by  un 
speakable  sorrow  and  disgust  over  the  impending  fiasco.  But  I  know  the  history 
of  hundreds  of  others,  and  I  know  of  none  who  brought  away  more  than  a  small 
fraction  of  what  they  took  there.  I  further  know  of  very  many  who  never  got 
away  with  their  lives  even,  much  less  with  their  money. 


400  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

bottom  by  breaking  the  hold  of  English  commercial  policy  upon  those 
interests,  through  some  system  of  protection  for  the  South  against  soil 
exhaustion  and  the  removal  of  the  "  opportunities  "  of  freedom,  and 
this  on  some  comprehensive  continental  plan,  either  of  war  or  peace, 
or  both,  that  shall  eliminate  English  political,  military,  and  commercial 
dominion  from  this  continent  and  from  all  the  adjacent  islands. 

It  has  been  said  by  economists  that  if  all  the  personal  property  of 
a  civilized  community  should  be  destroyed,  about  three  years'  labor 
would  furnish  the  means  of  restoration.  The  destruction  of  property 
in  slaves  by  emancipation  was  not  as  disastrous  as  expected,  in  part 
because  labor  thereby  became  free  to  move,  and  did  in  part  move,  to 
more  productive  lands,  thereby  speeding  recuperation,  only  to  repeat 
the  same  old  round  of  land  destruction,  however.  But,  under  a  system 
permitting  soil  enrichment  from  year  to  year,  the  capital  in  buildings, 
fences,  and  other  improvements  would  be  saved,  and  also  that  required 
to  pay  for  new  improvements  on  new  lands,  while  the  accompanying 
improved  agriculture  would  require  and  develop  superior  intelligence 
and  growing  morality  in  the  labor  employed.  This  is  the  true  line  of 
march  out  of  slavery  into  freedom,  as  also  into  freedom  from  race  an 
tagonisms. 

Precisely  here  are  to  be  found  the  origin  and  remedy  of  the  unex 
pected  race  problems  with  which  the  North  is  beginning  to  be  afflicted. 
A  policy  of  soil  exhaustion  under  the  control  of  unchecked  transporta 
tion  interests  and  action  on  behalf  of  the  owners  and  manipulators  of 
railroads  must  create  a  demand  for  and  assist  the  supply  of  an  ever- 
deteriorating  class  of  laborers,  constantly  lowering  the  standard  of 
American  citizenship  everywhere.  An  opposite  policy  would  have  an 
opposite  effect  upon  that  standard,  and  would  have  a  further  effect  to 
check  the  current  tendency  to  railroad  wrecking,  trusteeships,  reorgani 
zation,  and  general  decline  in  value.  It  would  also  check  the  spirit  of 
railroad  conflict,  competition,  and  homicide.  Relief  of  race  problems 
by  education  and  improved  morality  depends  upon  increased  return 
for  labor,  better  wages.  Cause  and  effect  are  found  on  both  sides  of 
the  equation,  but  still  the  destruction  of  the  poor  is  everywhere  their 
poverty.  The  wages  of  workers  are  to  society  what  food  is  to  the 
body — they  enrich,  strengthen,  and  make  healthy  the  life-blood  of  the 
social  organism. 

In  these  propositions  will  be  found  the  answer  to  the  question  of 
Prof.  Le  Conte:  "What  is  the  best  next  step?"  And  all  the  answers 
may  be  summed  up  in  a  universal  policy  of  land  protection — protec 
tion  against  land  destruction  by  the  insidious  effects  of  both  foreign 
and  domestic  policies  that  rob  the  American  worker  of  the  material 
things  on  arid  by  which  alone  his  work  can  be  employed,  expended, 


The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  401 

and  made  fruitful.  To  accomplish  this  the  continent  must  be  sur 
veyed,  and  out  of  its  diversities  a  consistent  continental  policy  of  unity 
and  harmony  framed,  adopted,  put  in  practice,  guarded  against  foreign 
and  domestic  interference ;  these  steps  to  be  repeated  as  often  as  en 
lightened  progress  may  demand  and  permit. 

The  history  of  the  rebellion,  its  antecedents  and  sequences,  is  so  full 
of  studies  and  instruction  for  the  evolutionary  sociologist,  and  this 
opportunity  is  so  unique  and  little  likely  to  be  repeated,  that  one  who 
was  a  witness  with  eyes  wide  open  is  loath  to  drop  the  subject.  Let 
me  refer  briefly  to  one  or  two  more  points. 

I  have  said  elsewhere,  substantially:  Secession  never  won  in  the 
South  until  it  appeared  at  last  that  the  new  autonomy  would  furnish 
opportunity  to  the  young  men  of  the  South  in  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  Confederacy.  The  new  autonomy  was  the  result  of  what  natural 
ists  know  as  propagation  by  fission,  which  takes  place  when  the  organ 
ism  can  no  longer  supply  itself  with  the  necessary  amount  of  food.  It 
might  be  called  propagation  by  starvation  or  by  poverty,  and  its  appli 
cation  here  would  be  more  apparent  by  the  use  of  either  of  these  terms. 

Now,  portions  of  the  Northern  States  are  at  this  moment  uncon 
sciously  getting  ready  for  splitting  up,  propagating  by  fission,  for  the 
same  reasons.  New  England,  having  exhausted  its  soil  and  other  natu 
ral  resources,  is  beginning  to  demand  free  itrade,  in  order  to  obtain 
cheap  Nova  Scotia  coal  and  hold  her  manufacturing  enterprises. 
Meantime  Quebec  has  largely  annexed  New  England  by  sending  over 
four  hundred  thousand  French  Canadians  there,  who  propose  to  ap 
propriate  and  control  the  whole  of  it  through  the  effects  of  another 
form  of  propagation — the  natural  one — raised  to  the  highest  power 
under  skillful  priestly  direction.  Here  we  have  the  almost  complete 
conditions  for  the  formation  of  a  new  confederacy  or  dominion,  in 
cluding  Quebec,  New  England,  and  that  portion  of  the  Dominion  lying 
east  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Meanwhile  our  Protestant  priesthood  are 
squabbling  over  creeds  and  higher  criticism,  sacrificing  birthright  for 
pottage  again. 

Further,  the  combination  of  Union  States  was  always  wasp-waisted 
at  or  about  the  region  of  Ohio.  But  for  the  strong  breed  of  New  Eng- 
landers  who  first  settled  the  northern  part  of  that  State,  and  the  ne 
cessities  of  east  and  west  commercial  movement,  a  point  for  another 
fission  might  have  been  found  there  long  since.  When  this  east  and 
west  movement  begins  to  decline,  as  it  must  before  long,  if  it  has  not 
done  so  already,  another  danger  spot,  with  or  without  a  danger  signal, 
will  be  found  in  Ohio.  Further  study  would  show  other  danger  spots, 
if  opportunity  permitted. 

What  our  fathers  called  Providence,  and  we  may  call  evolution- 


402  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South. 

ary  protection,  or  provision  by  compulsion — the  "necessity  of  raising 
revenue  by  taxing  the  foreigner  through  an  export  duty — put  into  the 
Confederate  constitution  the  means  for  destroying  slavery  by  slow 
evolutionary  action,  and  for  building  up  a  strong  and  prosperous  peo 
ple.  This  means  the  success  of  Union  arms  destroyed.  It  is  for  us  to 
take  a  lesson  out  of  the  same  book.  When  we  have  done  so,  and  en 
larged  the  teaching  to  cover  a  continental  system,  we  may  flatter  our 
selves  that  we  have  begun  to  solve  our  race  problems,  and  many  other 
equally  important  problems ;  and  not  till  then. 

DR.  LEWIS  Gr.  JANES  : 

I  wish  to  correct  what  I  think  might  be  a  false  impression  from 
the  criticism  of  Mr.  Skilton  on  the  action  of  the  abolitionists  in  dis 
banding  their  organization  after  the  war.  As  I  was  brought  up  after 
the  strictest  sect  of  the  abolitionists,  and  read  the  discussions  in  their 
papers  when  this  action  was  taken,  I  think  I  can  speak  with  authority 
concerning  their  motives.  They  did  not  consider  that  their  work  was 
done — that  they  had  no  further  obligation  to  help  the  colored  people, 
as  Mr.  Skilton  assumes.  But  they  found  themselves  then  in  substan 
tial  agreement  with  a  large  section — more  than  half — of  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  It  seemed  to  them  that  they  could  exercise  a  wider 
influence,  and  do  better  and  more  effective  work  for  the  colored  man, 
by  breaking  down  the  barrier  of  their  exclusive  organization  and 
joining  hands  with  all  those  who  were  working  for  the  same  ends. 
Whether  they  were  right  or  not  I  will  not  argue ;  but  I  believe  the 
truth  of  history  will  recognize  the  purity  of  their  motives,  and  their 
life-long  devotion,  as  individuals  and  citizens,  to  the  welfare  of  the 
colored  race.  I  know  personally  that  many  of  them  had  a  wiser  fore 
sight  of  the  difficulties  succeeding  emancipation  than  most  of  their 
Northern  fellow-citizens.  Many  of  them  have  since  devoted  years  of 
faithful  service  to  the  education  and  improvement  of  the  freedmen. 
Without  arguing  the  question,  I  must  also  dissent  from  his  policy  of 
expatriating  the  colored  people,  which  it  clearly  seems  to  me  would 
result,  not  in  their  civilization,  but  in  their  relapse  into  utter  bar 
barism,  as  in  San  Domingo. 

PROF.  LE  CONTE,  in  closing:  At  this  late  hour  I  will  not  detain 
the  audience  by  further  remarks.  I  desire  merely  to  extend  my  thanks 
to  the  audience  for  their  courteous  attention,  and  especially  to  express 
my  great  interest  and  general  agreement  with  the  remarks  of  Mr. 
Skilton.  It  appears  to  me,  speaking  off-hand  and  under  the  impulse  of 
my  present  feeling,  that  he  has  indicated  very  nearly  the  true  solution 
of  this  problem. 


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STUDIES   IN  APPLIED   SOCIOLOGY. 

LECTURES    AND    DISCUSSIONS    BEFORE    THE 
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CONTENTS. 

18.  The  Duty  of  a  Public  Spirit.      By  E.  BENJAMIN  ANDREWS,  D.  D., 

LL.  I).,'  President  of  Brown  University. 

19.  The  Study  of  Applied  Sociology.      By  ROBERT  G.  ECCLES,  M.  D., 

author  of  "The  Evolution  of  Mind,"  etc. 

20.  Representative  Government.     By  EDWIN  D.  MEAD,  Editor  of  The 

New  England  Magazine. 

21.  Suffrage  and  the  Ballot.    By  DANIEL  S.  REMSEN,  Counselor-at-Law. 

22.  The  Land  Problem.     By  Professor  OTIS  T.  MASON,    President  of 

the  American  Folk-lore  Society. 

23.  TJie  Problem  of  City  Government.     By  LEWIS  G.   JANES,  M.  D., 

author  of  "  Primitive  Christianity,''  u  Life  as  a  Fine  Art,"  etc. 

24.  Taxation  and  Revenue:    the  Free-Trade  View.      By  THOMAS  G. 

SHEARMAN,  Coimselor-at-  Law. 

25.  Taxation  and  Revenue  :    the  Protectionist  View.     By  Professor 

GEORGE  GUNTON,  President  of  the  Institute  of  Social  Econom 
ics,  author  of  "  The  Principles  of  Social  Economics,"  etc. 

26.  The  Monetary  Problem.     By  WILLIAM  POTTS,  author  of  "  Evolu 

tion  and  Social  Reform  :  the  Socialistic  Method,"  etc. 

27.  The  Immigration  Problem.     By  Z.   SIDNEY  SAMPSON,  author  of 

"  Primitive  Man,"  "  The    Evolution  of  Music,"  etc. 

28.  The  Evolution  of  the  Afric-  American,  and  his  Relation  to  the 

Race  Problem.  By  Rev.  SAMUEL  J.  BARROWS,  Editor  of  The 
Christian  Register. 

29.  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South.      By  Professor  JOSEPH  LE  CONTE, 

LL.  D..  President  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad 
vancement  of  Science,  author  of  "  Evolution  as  related  to 
Religious  Thought,"  etc. 

30.  Education  as  related  to   Citizenship.      By  Rev.  JOHN  W.  CHAD- 

WICK,  author  of  "  The  Bible  of  To-day/'  "  Charles  Darwin,"  etc. 

31.  The  Democratic  Party.      By   Hon.  EDWARD  M.  SHEPARD,  of  the 

Civil  Service  Commission,   Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

32.  The  Republican  Party.      By  ITon.  ROSWELL  G.  HORR,  formerly 

Member  of  Congress  from  Michigan. 

33.  The  Independent  in  Politics.     By  Hon.  JOHN  A.  TAYLOR,  author 

of  "  Evolution  of  the  State,"  etc. 

34.  Moral  Questions  in  Politics.     By  Rev.  JOHN  C.  KIMBALL,  author 

of  "  The  Evolution  of  Arms  and  Armor,"  etc. 


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Bound  volume,  cloth,  with  index 2  QO 

D.  APPLETON"  &  CO.,  Publishers,  1,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street,  New  York. 


